The occasional conductors asking me to help their tuba sections INVARIABLY call for the WILLSON to be blown into. They ALL want but ONE thing...

I feel honored I was allowed / invited to play F-Tuba songs at baptising service of a friend´s recently-born daughter. For reference: "Wiegenlied" by ...

Lätzsch is among the more exclusive manufacturers of high-profile trombones and general brass.
So at the very least, the immense price tag is PLAUSIBLE.

I have no idea if the actual horn is actually WORTH that kind of money...

I voted "No".
I certainly enjoy well-played marches, especially more elaborate ones.
(In our tradition, we differenciate between "Straßenmarsch" and "Konzertmarsch".
The former are fine for use during parades, most of them even up-hill.
The latter may or may be too (aerobically, musically, or both ...

Nah, those are currently being put out of work, so don´t waste your energy before the dust settles and you find out who ultimately will survive the redistribution of greasing-opportunities.

I don´t get it.
Shipping / mailing / spedition of goods is one of the rare instances where private sector economics should be doing its thing.
Which is supposed to be:

- Promise services to be performed well, quickly, or cheaply.
- Have customers pick a combination of any two of these virtues ...

I´d suggest a procedure as follows:
- define a set of measurements YOU need in order to make a bag that perfectly fits a horn of these measurements.
- survey the most commonly sold horns and their dimensions (duh).
Take those measurements YOURSELF at one of the huge tuba outlets who have ALL the ...

What I simply can´t wrap my head around with these things is the obviously wrong valve placement.
Correct me if I´m wrong, and bear with me:

Let´s say the valve set were a watch dial, valve #2 were its center and "12" were straight up.
If #1 were the minute- and #3 were the hour hand, the OP´s ...

I used to keep one smallish and one larger MP for most my horns.
My preferences have changed over time, though.

It took me a while to get used to a 9.5 mm bore / 35 mm rim self- customized (ugly, crude, straight-conical bowl and cylindrical bore) piece.
Back then, the PT50+ was my go-to piece on my ...

Thanks, bloke, for pointing out a common goal we both share and seem to be passionate enough about to not pass up a chance to engage in nerdy conversation...

Back when I switched from trp./flgh. to tuba, (1990) I made it a point to immediately go and find tuba-related CDs and, consuming those ...

Yes.
This forum made me aware of that channel some time earlier this year.
I especially enjoyed the Elektra excerpts. Wasn´t familiar with that music.
Thanks for the suggestion.

There is this old vaudeville play / jazz standard / wherever it originated Gassenhauer about potatos and tomatos which provided a suggestion of what to do with discussions like that.

Yes, of course, the notion that words have meanings is a very important one.
But I suggest to apply it to ...

Many years ago I went to this tuba recital where a mixture of "normal" and "avantgarde" literature for unaccompanied tuba was presented, including improvised passages.

At one instance, the tubist (!) took an empty round cookie box such as this one https://www.walmart.com/ip/Royal-Dansk-Danish ...

Bloke wrote: What's their name and phone number?
I´ve been there and done that, and if I ever have to buy a BBb again, 5-valved it will be.

When you´re an orchestral tubist, maybe not: rarely do you see a 5v-BBb in German concert halls, and if a 5th valve were SUPERIOR in that setting, they´d be ...

There´s more where that came from.

This is WDR BigBand staff, not the worst people to take inspiration from...

What I offered above was hints on improving the response-time that elapses between your initiation of a note and that note´s actual appearance at the bell. Or rather, your control and awareness thereof.
Once you achieved YOUR best (not necessarily your shortest attainable, but rather your best ...

I second the idea of giving your horn another chance.
I´ve been totally in your situation, several times:
- switching from flugelhorn to tuba was the biggest challenge timing-wise
- adding CC to F was a challenge as well
- switching from 3/4 CC to 5/4 BBb even more so.

Don´t over-analyse it. Find ...

Pebble finish?!?
Is that the bigger brother of sand blasting, the latter being used for satin finish?

...erm, not for me, I guess. I didn´t like golf-ball style motorbike helmets, either

While both versions are more than presentable,
I liked the French C-Tuba version better.
Compared to the F-tuba, it sounded more like "home range" of that instrument (a somehow more resonant sound, if that makes sense).

I use lip slurs all the time and have been spending long hours practising them.
As well as breath attacks in favor of tongued articulation, which comes in handy, at times.

But I find myself tongueing fast slurred runs for clarity of timing and pitch and to avoid a general impression of sloppiness ...

It hasn´t, really, so far.
Setting dynamics aside for a while and playing stuff in a healthy mp is going a long way for me.
That and making a good breathing plan.

On the other hand, I´m not playing overly challenging stuff most of the time.