Here’s the tuba gear I use.

I’ve bought and sold a ton of tubas over the decades, the brands including; Rudolf Meinl, Hirsbrunner, Miraphone, Yamaha, Meinl Weston, B & S, Alexander and some that I’ve forgotten all about. At one point I had as many as 8 instruments at one time, but I’ve managed to cull the herd down to 4 tubas and a cimbasso. What follows, is a prattling on about each one.

RUDOLF MEINL 3/4 CC

This is my baby, my voice. It was the third tuba I purchased after a BBb German-made no-name stencil horn that got me into university and a Miraphone 186 CC that I bought in my freshman year. When I first broke into the profession, virtually, all of my work was done on the Rudi as it was the only horn I had. It remained my go-to tuba for 20 years until the Yamaha 822 F came along. It’s been re-built by Ron Partch – twice! It has patches and a few dents, but it still plays great!

 

 

YAMAHA YFB822S F

My investigation into the world of F tubas began with the usual German suspects; (Alexander, B & S, Meinl Weston), and while they all sounded great, (particularly the Alex), I was never comfortable with the low register — a common complaint amongst some tuba players. With the development of the 621 F tuba by Yamaha, I thought I had finally found what I was looking for, except I discovered it was a bit small for some of the things that I wanted to do with it. Enter the 822 F, Yamaha’s flagship tuba in my opinion! It does almost everything. I am hampered only by my lack of finger dexterity in the extreme low register. An interesting side note: I Velcro down the 4th valve and pull the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th valve slides to produce a passable CC tuba for the Clarinet Polka tuba encore that we perform on True North Brass gigs. I started my career as a CC tuba guy, but this tuba is now my go-to horn for most stuff now. You can hear it on all of the True North Brass recordings (except Pictures at an Exhibition), and in the background music for an old Disney Channel computer animation kids’ show called Rolie Polie Ollie.

VMI 5198 NEPTUNE MEL CULBERTSON 6/4 CC (piston valve model)

I thought I was done buying tubas but it was announced that in 2006, the Canadian Opera Company would be doing Wagner’s Ring Cycle and I felt that I needed something with a bit more heft. I “visualized” what I was after (thanks, Joaner) and this Neptune appeared. It’s a truly marvellous instrument, but a pain to lug around! (Man, is it big!)

 

 YAMAHA YFB821S F 

Having just waxed enthusiastic about the 822 F, the last thing you’d expect me to do is buy another F tuba, but the truth of the matter is, I missed the Yamaha 621 for its compactness and ease of portability. My only complaint about the 621 was its ergonomics: I’m a big guy, and the valve angle used to bug my wrist on long gigs like 3 hour Dixie band strolling jobs! Once I found out about the Roger Bobo-modified, made-to-order 821, with its improved valve angle and its bigger bell, I knew I had to have one. You can hear it on True North Brass’ recording of my arrangement of Pictures at an Exhibition for BQ and Organ. It’s a fantastic instrument and, yes, that’s the tuba in my “martini” photo on this website!

 

Cimbasso

RUDOLF MEINL F

There’s an article that I wrote for the Canadian Opera Company for use in their house programme and on their website about the cimbasso that I’m including here as well. It explains everything. One thing, though. In re-reading Clifford Bevan’s excellent book; The Tuba Family, I see that in my original article, to my horror, I plagiarised his wonderful line; “…render unto Verdi, that which is Verdi’s”. I have rectified this oversight in this version.