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While I am primarily a euphonium player, then secondarily a trombone (tenor, bass) player, I have toyed with getting/learning tuba over the years. I recently got asked to play the tuba parts in a quintet for the upcoming Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday services. On my euphonium or bass trombone. I got the music, tried each horn, and was not really satisfied with the resulting sound. The euphonium ended up playing way too many pedal notes, and the bass trombone might be a "bit" better, but still, neither one of these instruments gave me the sound I wanted to hear or I suspect others wanted to hear.
So, I decided to look into getting a tuba, maybe. I first thought about getting a Bb tuba and was looking at a Miraphone 186-4U, some would say it is sort of the gold standard in 4/4 sized Bb tubas. But I would be shelling out around 8-9K to get one new with a case. Not sure at my tender age if that would be a wise investment, as it may sit around after these upcoming Easter gigs. I do plan, however, to reconstitute my brass quintet with some different personnel and with me on tuba, perhaps. So, after my great satisfaction with a Wessex Dolce euphonium I bought a couple years ago (and still have) to bridge the gap from selling my Miraphone M5050 and waiting on my Adams E3 to be built (six months), I decided to look and see what Wessex had to offer.
I looked at their entire tuba lineup. Long and short, I decided to get the Eb Bombino, a 4 piston valve, compensating horn that is the same configuration as my euphonium (3 + 1). In fact, it looks like my euphonium on steroids or super-sized. I opted for Eb as I think this would be a nice tuba for a brass quintet, which is what I would end up using a tuba for in the long run. And the size (3/4) is just right. It has heft to it, but not so huge that you can't handle it. I got it yesterday, and it arrived quickly and in perfect condition (as did my Wessex Dolce euphonium a couple years ago). I won't bother with pictures, as you can visit the Wessex site and see some very high quality professional pictures. I got the lacquered version (like my Dolce).
Build quality is excellent, don't see anything at all that gets my attention. The case is ABS with wheels, I like it a lot better than my Dolce case, which protects fine, but is rather bulky (not heavy). Reminds me of the excellent case I had for my Miraphone. The mouthpiece (Mt Vernon model - whatever that is, I have little experience with tuba mouthpieces) seems to work fine and is not as big as I remember tuba mouthpieces to be when I have ever tried to blow one in the past. Since I read both bass clef and treble clef fluently, playing Eb is a snap, almost. Just read the bass clef parts as if they were treble clef and add 3 sharps. I have played through some music and this works fine. I still have to concentrate a little bit on accidentals, but I think very shortly this will be as easy as reading tenor clef (which I read as treble, also).
The horn sounds wonderful. Full rich sound in the low range. Nice in the upper range and fairly easy to get to. I was surprised at how easily I could just play this horn right out of the box. I need some work on the very low range as I couldn't get some of those notes to sound easily or at all. But I suspect this will come in due time. The intonation is amazingly good, might even be better than my Adams euphonium. No kidding.
There are a bunch of spit keys and a couple right above and over the bottom bow. Once I figure out which way to lean/move the horn, I should be able to empty them without getting water all over the horn as I did the first time I tried. This may be the case on other tubas, I just don't really know. The horn does come with a drip catcher for the 3 upright valves, and it is needed, as it gets a goodly amount of drips from the valves. Just like a 3 + 1 euphonium, the 2nd valve slide fills quicker than the other valve slides.
Valves are working fine already. All slides pull nicely. I haven't removed all the upper or lower valve caps, but I did have to work a little to get the upper 2nd valve cap screwed back on. I know about these tendencies with the valve caps. This seems to be almost ubiquitous with the Chinese made horns and would be an area that I would try to improve if I were Wessex (I think they are). And the valves are vented!! How nice, I didn't expect that.
I am absolutely stunned over this horn. It is very, very nice. Wessex ships with a two week return policy, no questions asked. It took me all of 5 minutes to know with certainty that this horn is a keeper. Wessex - "you can't have it back, it's mine!"
If you are considering an Eb tuba (piston vs. rotary valves), this is an incredible horn for just over 2K. Happy, happy camper here!!
So, I decided to look into getting a tuba, maybe. I first thought about getting a Bb tuba and was looking at a Miraphone 186-4U, some would say it is sort of the gold standard in 4/4 sized Bb tubas. But I would be shelling out around 8-9K to get one new with a case. Not sure at my tender age if that would be a wise investment, as it may sit around after these upcoming Easter gigs. I do plan, however, to reconstitute my brass quintet with some different personnel and with me on tuba, perhaps. So, after my great satisfaction with a Wessex Dolce euphonium I bought a couple years ago (and still have) to bridge the gap from selling my Miraphone M5050 and waiting on my Adams E3 to be built (six months), I decided to look and see what Wessex had to offer.
I looked at their entire tuba lineup. Long and short, I decided to get the Eb Bombino, a 4 piston valve, compensating horn that is the same configuration as my euphonium (3 + 1). In fact, it looks like my euphonium on steroids or super-sized. I opted for Eb as I think this would be a nice tuba for a brass quintet, which is what I would end up using a tuba for in the long run. And the size (3/4) is just right. It has heft to it, but not so huge that you can't handle it. I got it yesterday, and it arrived quickly and in perfect condition (as did my Wessex Dolce euphonium a couple years ago). I won't bother with pictures, as you can visit the Wessex site and see some very high quality professional pictures. I got the lacquered version (like my Dolce).
Build quality is excellent, don't see anything at all that gets my attention. The case is ABS with wheels, I like it a lot better than my Dolce case, which protects fine, but is rather bulky (not heavy). Reminds me of the excellent case I had for my Miraphone. The mouthpiece (Mt Vernon model - whatever that is, I have little experience with tuba mouthpieces) seems to work fine and is not as big as I remember tuba mouthpieces to be when I have ever tried to blow one in the past. Since I read both bass clef and treble clef fluently, playing Eb is a snap, almost. Just read the bass clef parts as if they were treble clef and add 3 sharps. I have played through some music and this works fine. I still have to concentrate a little bit on accidentals, but I think very shortly this will be as easy as reading tenor clef (which I read as treble, also).
The horn sounds wonderful. Full rich sound in the low range. Nice in the upper range and fairly easy to get to. I was surprised at how easily I could just play this horn right out of the box. I need some work on the very low range as I couldn't get some of those notes to sound easily or at all. But I suspect this will come in due time. The intonation is amazingly good, might even be better than my Adams euphonium. No kidding.
There are a bunch of spit keys and a couple right above and over the bottom bow. Once I figure out which way to lean/move the horn, I should be able to empty them without getting water all over the horn as I did the first time I tried. This may be the case on other tubas, I just don't really know. The horn does come with a drip catcher for the 3 upright valves, and it is needed, as it gets a goodly amount of drips from the valves. Just like a 3 + 1 euphonium, the 2nd valve slide fills quicker than the other valve slides.
Valves are working fine already. All slides pull nicely. I haven't removed all the upper or lower valve caps, but I did have to work a little to get the upper 2nd valve cap screwed back on. I know about these tendencies with the valve caps. This seems to be almost ubiquitous with the Chinese made horns and would be an area that I would try to improve if I were Wessex (I think they are). And the valves are vented!! How nice, I didn't expect that.
I am absolutely stunned over this horn. It is very, very nice. Wessex ships with a two week return policy, no questions asked. It took me all of 5 minutes to know with certainty that this horn is a keeper. Wessex - "you can't have it back, it's mine!"
If you are considering an Eb tuba (piston vs. rotary valves), this is an incredible horn for just over 2K. Happy, happy camper here!!
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