Please keep posting the pictures after you've had the modifications done. Although the repairs are interesting in their own right, I have the same tuba (similar year of production too!) and am very interested in the results.

I bought my Willson with one.

I have never noticed it affecting the sound in any way. All it does is protect the bell edge. Therefore I left it on and don't intend to remove it.

Would I look for one if I didn't already have one? No.

A few tiny corrections and a little appendix to what Lee said:
the Soviet Union had little to do with manufacturing in (then) Czechoslovakia – the USSR fell apart in 1991 while the Velvet revolution (and subsequent privatization) started in 1989.

The Červený family did actually have a direct ...

When I was going through Otto Maenz during my conservatory studies I was surprised by how something that looks so intimidating can be so playable and can sound surprisingly okay. Lovely etudes.

Finally a topic I can participate in! :tuba:


I think like the audio clip on: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%C4%8Derven%C3%BD


Yes please. The audio is spot on. Something like "tcher-ve-nee" (hope that's understandable).

I rarely see the spelling written with Č (i.e. correctly ...

groovlow wrote: Fri Feb 26, 2021 2:13 pm link

The funniest part, though, is not included there... See below.

Off topic, but relevant – bort, could you please disclose how much did the conversion cost? Not that I'm thinking about it. Just curious.

EDIT: Just noticed the tuba has four valves. Interesting, I didn't even know they made bass tubas with 4 valves.

Some lovely big tubas are here as well, did you look there since you're in Germany?

https://tubaforum.de/instrumente/b-tuba/

I tried Linz for a minute or two and heard a colleague try it, too. It felt really playable and had solid (although not really perfect) intonation.

I didn't like the valves at all. They felt like the ones I had on the school-owned Strauss – somewhat sticky and slow, and kind of unpredictable, which ...

I have a 483. Amazing tubas, super-reliable, great for marching gigs, great for polka music, etc. etc.

Merry Christmas from the Czech republic!