TubaForum.net

In addition to being a tuba player, I play electric bass. On the TalkBass forum, there are obviously more people and more activity that is seen in this forum. But one of the posts we all enjoy seeing is what is labeled as an "NBD" or "New Bass Day" post.

I searched this forum for "New Tuba Day" and did find some posts, but there weren't very many. Is this because of the previously mentioned smaller crowd and/or less turn over of instruments in this forum? Is it because posting pictures is cumbersome for some on here (ie can't upload pictures directly to the forum)?

I for one would love to see and celebrate others when they get new gear. That is always a fun time.

Go through my posts. I’ve done it a lot but not with that title

What if we only get old tubas?

Trying to remember if i've bought a tuba new...

And i have gotten my fair share of night tubas, too. Do they count?

humBell wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2025 6:32 pm What if we only get old tubas?

Trying to remember if i've bought a tuba new...

And i have gotten my fair share of night tubas, too. Do they count?

Yes...."new to me" counts. I've had 9 tubas in my lifetime and 4 of them were brand-new.

Here are two older ones to add to your thread.

The day I bought my Eastman 836 (a direct copy of the "YamaYork" YCB-826)…



The day I traded in my Eastman 836 and bought a genuine YamaYork…



Both days were very exciting for me. The Eastman was a particularly good example and sold almost immediately (after I gave out the serial number for people planning to go to Dillon to try them, hoping to shorten the time of some lucky person in searching through all the so-so and okay examples). It is being played professionally in a symphony orchestra every day, but I do not think the new owner wants me to give out his name or orchestra.

The Yamaha is outstanding in all respects.

We tend to poo-poo flaws in BATs because those flaws are legion and, despite this fact, we want what we want, so you frequently hear that a 6/4 tuba "has good intonation for such a large horn" or how "the low register plays very openly, for a BAT."

This is the norm these days. We make self-validating statements to cover our backsides with others and to convince ourselves that everything will be okay.

Whatever. Hey, I validate parking, too.

Well, this Yamaha plays ASTOUNDINGLY WELL in all regards, compared with *any* tuba, not just for a big horn. It plays like a 186 but with "that sound" and it has a lot of clarity and color when I play it.

I'm a fortunate son, as they say…

Those are remarkably good, and there's no other six quarter C that touches them. I've played about three of them and the tuning characteristics are right in line with the tuning characteristics of the 5450 that I owned when I tested a few of those things over a period of a year or two. It would have been really easy to move from one to the other, because the same slightly out of tune things were slightly out of tune on both models and just about the same amount.

When Floyd Cooley's Nirschl C tuba was for sale, I was able to compare it back to back to a brand new one of the same model (which stunk compared to his), and his was very close to being as good as a Yamaha. He wanted $20,000 for it and was being cagey about it. What he didn't know - and what no one knew, for obvious reasons - was that I had about $25,000 in actual cash money in two zipper pockets in my jacket when I was trying out his tuba. His haughty attitude didn't dissuade me from buying it (I don't give a crap how someone acts when I'm talking to them about buying their stuff, because - once I've bought it - or not, I don't ever have to engage that person again) but it just wasn't quite as good as a Yamaha 826 (which I had just played about ten minutes earlier). And it just seemed to me that - even though a new Yamaha would cost around $15,000 more money - that it's hard to settle for less when all you have to do for noticeably more tuba is to pay more money...
...but - ten minutes later - I played a Miraphone model 98 for the very first time, and it really got me thinking about whether "playing piston C tubas" was the only thing worthy of consideration... and maybe - at least - compromising with the German tradition was worthy of giving a shot.

I understand completely. I would give anything for a BBb Alex 164 Kaiser if it played as well as my Yamaha. Heck, I'd give the Yamaha for that.

tubatodd wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2025 2:15 pmI for one would love to see and celebrate others when they get new gear. That is always a fun time.

This is a great community with terrific folks. That said…

There tends to be a bit of a judgmental attitude toward other people’s choices here. It discourages “new tuba/euph” posts a bit.

Your wanting to celebrate others when they get new gear is the best of attitudes and I applaud it completely.

New tubas are fun! Let’s enjoy it, if only vicariously!

MiBrassFS wrote: ↑Sun Jan 26, 2025 5:11 am This is a great community with terrific folks. That said…

There tends to be a bit of a judgmental attitude toward other people’s choices here. It discourages “new tuba/euph” posts a bit.

Your wanting to celebrate others when they get new gear is the best of attitudes and I applaud it completely.

New tubas are fun! Let’s enjoy it, if only vicariously!

On the talkbass forum people post their NBD whether it is a used $100 Squier or a $15,000 custom Fodera. There are people who are fans of both and all basses in between. I'd like to see that here.

There is a similar type of thread that has been going on for a while and that is "What is your rig this weekend?" That thread has people posting their choice of bass, amp and pedals as well as a picture of the venue where they are playing. Some people post rehearsals in small rooms and some post big festival stages opening for big name acts. Once again, the community can live vicariously through others and see why types of gigs we play....whether it is a 17 piece big band (like my group) at a ballroom or a metal band at a dive bar.

the elephant wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2025 7:12 pm Here are two older ones to add to your thread.

The day I bought my Eastman 836 (a direct copy of the "YamaYork" YCB-826)…



The day I traded in my Eastman 836 and bought a genuine YamaYork…



....

Thank you for contributing. I for one like seeing these types of posts. It's just fun to see what others are playing on and their feedback.

I guess I should contribute to my own thread. This is both a "New Tuba Day" (2 months late) and a "What's your rig this weekend?"

Besson 995 - Acquired in a trade back around Thanksgiving 2024


I've tried all 8 of my mouthpieces and I realized, I need to settle on 1 or I'm actually doing myself more harm than good. So for now the mouthpiece of choice is a Robert Tucci RT-45

I forgot to post the weekend "venue." For me it is practicing in my music room. I REALLY need to get a regular chair in there. For now I am playing from the edge of a recliner and it is not ideal.



Better view of the "music room" dominated by basses, amps and cabinets.


My "workbench" where I do setups, replace strings and solder in pickups on my basses. It's also where I laid out my mouthpieces for consideration.

What’s the little blue computer?

arpthark wrote: ↑Sun Jan 26, 2025 10:25 am What’s the little blue computer?

That was an Apple Mac Color Classic that I gutted (regrettably 15+ years ago), painted and put an 8" LCD and mini PC running Xubuntu Linux with a Mac-ish desktop setup. It works, but with such a small screen it doesn't have a practical use. It's just cool.

In spirit of the post, or maybe remembrance of how many of these things (mostly CC tubas) I've owned... Here's mine:

[
My previous MRP-C

[
My previous HB-2P... Gosh, I wish I could've kept this in addition to what I have now. Such a beautiful horn.

[
5450RA Tuono

[
The day I brought home my $300 Holton 340

[
My previous Willson F... Probably should've kept this one. There was nothing wrong with it. It didn't need a full rebuild!

[
My current Willson F

[
My B&M CC

[
2165 or "6465" as I like to call it

I have briefly posted about this before, but I have one last thing to say about the Yamaha 826, and I understand that very few people have played these and far fewer people have played the York tuba that the CSO owns - which is the one which has ended up being played in concerts, but - for those who own 826 tubas - you can thank Gene Pokorny for how they are.

They kept sending him prototypes (with their original valve section pasted on to them). The replacement prototypes were raw brass and the valve section continued to be silver, of course. One thing I noticed about one of the prototypes - while I was studying with him - was what a beautiful job they did soldering it onto that body and without any extraneous solder or without even wearing any of the silver off of the valve section's brace feet.

Getting back on track with the point of this post, Gene continued to send those instruments back (and I don't know whether he sent back two or three prototypes) with the the basic comment that they were too covered sounding and too tubby... and I don't know which adjectives he used; those are my adjectives.

One time when I was up there, it was the summer - so I met him at Ravinia. We rehearsed behind his parked car backed up to a hedge which shielded a private home from the complex. He had a citronella candle burning on his folded down tailgate to discourage pests. I think we were sitting in lawn chairs and playing out into the open air. Afterwards, he invited me to listen to a rehearsal. The first thing they rehearsed was the short Strauss tone poem "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks". Dale had arrived late (same terrible traffic as now) walked in just as the piece began, sat down and blatted through the solo at the very beginning with a couple of missed pitches. I listened to Gene play the tuba passages with which many of us are familiar. (Personally, I would play that piece on bass tuba, but - whether he ever would or not - I'm sure he was trying to use that instrument as much as possible so he could evaluate it, and he was correct about it.) It was too tubby, and the sound of it didn't make it out into the patrons seats very well. I could hear him, but it his solo passages did not sound like solos when played on that instrument. Again, it was one of the rejects. By the way, I didn't play a note on that instrument. I did a lot of driving and sacrificed a lot of time and some money for his advice, and I didn't want to waste even a little bit of that hour fooling around with other people's instruments...

... but to restate what I said at the beginning, any of you who own those or have played them (and maybe wished that you did own one), you can thank Gene for those instruments not just being another York knockoff, and being the only one that (ok: "in my opinion") actually exceeds the playing characteristics of the original CSO-owned instrument.

tubatodd wrote: ↑Sun Jan 26, 2025 10:33 am… Apple Mac Color Classic that I gutted (regrettably 15+ years ago), painted and put an 8" LCD and mini PC running Xubuntu Linux with a Mac-ish desktop setup. It works, but with such a small screen it doesn't have a practical use. It's just cool.

I have a Color Classic sitting here in my studio, but I am converting it to the Mystic setup and doubling the clock speed with a motherboard from one of the LC series Macs. So at the moment, it does not work.



I also have re-capped my 1989 SE/30 and use it all the time. I even have the original "gig bag" it came with. The handle on the top and the inclusion of the "gig bag" allowed Apple to sell it as a "portable" computer before laptops were invented. I love my SE/30!









Here is my Color Classic…

bloke wrote: ↑Sun Jan 26, 2025 11:08 am… you can thank Gene for those instruments not just being another York knockoff, and being the only one that (ok: "in my opinion") actually exceeds the playing characteristics of the original CSO-owned instrument.

My 826 does not suck. Thank you for sticking to your guns, Northern!

@the elephant I was gifted a pair of SE/30s in the mid 90s. They were surprisingly useful. Very powerful and futuristic for its time. I remember using a music notation software on it. I may still have the floppy disks.

The Mystic upgrade was something I had considered. At the time when I gutted the case I didn't have the proper new guts. It just sounded like a good idea. It was many years later the appropriate new guts were readily available.