Starting BBb tuba

[ithinknot]

On account of being an idiot, and having played zero tubas theretofore, I decided it would be fun to buy a Miraphone 186.

(Not quite the extravagance it could be - it's an old nickel-plated three valve that took several days of work sorting rotor bearings, paralleling slides and bracing, redoing some pretty heinous prior solder work, etc etc. But not too dented. FWIW, mpc is a Helleberg. Leadpipe needs replacing anyway, thanks to average red rot and some currently taped-up tiny cracks left over from a previous kink and 'repair' job. But there aren't any major dents in the pipe and, having lightly reamed the integral receiver back into a recognizable taper, the mouthpiece fits in 1" exactly.)

Anyway... slotting. I've been playing it for three days now, and the results are broadly non-embarrassing.

False tones, partials 2 - 4, great. Partials (7), 8 - 12 have plenty of tuning quirks, but they're evenly spaced and stable enough. Above that... who cares.

But... 5 and 6 seem weirdly close together, and both (especially 5) have to be approached aggressively 'from above' in order to speak cleanly. To be clear, I'm not talking about intonation. I know 5th partials on these things tend to be flat, and that's certainly the case here - but that's what (now moveable!) slides and alternates are for. I'm just talking about the degree of buzzing away from the real center of the note required to get things going without the 'idling submarine engine death rattle' starting up.

It feels especially odd because everywhere else I'm tending to play high on the partial, and I'm having to consciously slow down and widen air - as might be expected - to keep the buzz/head resonance pitch from sitting a quarter tone above what's coming out of the smokestack. But the opposite seems to be (very) required in this particular range.

Is this A Thing for the more trombone-familiar tuba experimentee? I know this question will probably seem very naive to me before too long, but I'm curious how these differences may have struck others initially. Apologies for length, and thanks for reading if your blood sugar held up this far.

[robcat2075]

I'm also just a dabbler but I have several tubas that I dabbled with.

I have a BBb Besson and it has one partial that is very difficult for me to hit cleanly. Is it me? Is it the tuba? Is it the fact that the horn has several large dents that may be conspiring to make that note behave poorly?

I can hit it clean sometimes, so I sense that if I worked on it I could learn to hit it clean every time, but it would be a lot of work for something i only wanted to dabble with.

[BGuttman]

I've not had much success with Bb or C tubas. I seem to find the Eb and F tubas work best for me. I had to play a BBb sousaphone in a show once and it was a fight most of the way. Best luck I ever had on BBb tuba was with a Sansone 4 valve. It had a rather small bore. Maybe there's something to that.

[ithinknot]

I have a BBb Besson and it has one partial that is very difficult for me to hit cleanly. Is it me? Is it the tuba? Is it the fact that the horn has several large dents that may be conspiring to make that note behave poorly?

I can hit it clean sometimes, so I sense that if I worked on it I could learn to hit it clean every time, but it would be a lot of work for something i only wanted to dabble with.

Thanks for the retroactive improvement to Christmas 2014! In this case, there's at least one approach that fairly reliably avoids the problem - it's just quite a disruptive feeling, and oddly out of line with what the instrument seems to want otherwise.

I've not had much success with Bb or C tubas. I seem to find the Eb and F tubas work best for me. I had to play a BBb sousaphone in a show once and it was a fight most of the way. Best luck I ever had on BBb tuba was with a Sansone 4 valve. It had a rather small bore. Maybe there's something to that.

Yeah - a 186 is 'only' 4/4, but it's big enough. The cows in the adjacent field seem appreciative; humans less so.

[SimmonsTrombone]

When I began tuba, the 5th partial was very difficult - not just pitch, but getting notes out. I found that I had to make more exaggerated mouthpiece shifts that I did with trombone. After I finally got it, it’s played well. I think my King 2341 is less of an air hog than my bass trombone.