Opinions on Lidl LBB-701?

[DonO.]

This one checks a lot of boxes for me as an “old man” tuba. Anyone here actually play one? What did you think?

[tofu]

I owned one maybe 10 years ago after an inebriated driver flew threw a red light at 70 mph (in a 30 zone) and slammed directly into my drivers side door in the middle of an intersection (45 minutes it took the FD to extract me with the jaws of life). On Memorial Day no less at 8 am as I was on my way to do a celebration & concert we do for veterans after the parade. Had a horn in the trunk no less - although it survived much better than I did (even though I was in and out of consciousness in the ambulance I refused to go to the hospital until they got my Mirafone out of the trunk (they had to pry it open). Best part - the cops took it and locked it up in a cell at the station jail.

So while doing rehabilitation I needed a horn I could handle. At the time Lee Stofer was a Lidl dealer. I bought mine from him. Back then they were an absolute steal for a high quality hand built horn with valves Lee described as better than Miraphone (a high standard) when he had mine apart. Slides were all in excellent alignment. The valves were fast, smooth and buttery. Horn is incredibly easy to handle, hold and move slides (although mine didn’t require much of that as the intonation was very good. It has a lovely sound and that 16.5 inch bell (big for a 3/4) horn puts out a lot of sound. It’s easy to get around range wise (a surprisingly easy and good low range with excellent false tones). It works great as a solo horn, quintet, and by itself could hold down a chamber group by itself - maybe up to 35 people. I would have kept it - but once I recovered I had another horn I prefer for small group stuff and it also excelled at what the Lidl did not - projecting to the back row. The Lidl just can’t - no matter how you push it - reach the back row in a good sized hall. While I was recovering we did a concert at Notre Dame's big hall (name escapes me) and we were doing Nubucco (as an opener) and I had the Lidl (which actually sounded lovely impersonating a Cimbasso with the bones) - but I was getting the more tuba from our assistant conductor at the time who was also a conductor at ND. It just could not get the sound out to the last quarter of the hall ( a problem I’ve never had with any other horn).

So the projection issue is really the only less than great thing I’d say about the horn. If your plans are to use it as part of a section it works quite nice. Small stuff it excels at. It only weighs 16 lbs (34 inches tall) and it’s so well balanced/proportioned it feels like half that. It truly is a high quality old man horn. Mine at the time came with such a great hard case - a fitted Jacob Winter. Really nice case and I always used it as it was like carry a big euph case. Also had pretty good wheels and a rubber strap. I never felt the need for a soft case. Any other questions feel free to ask. I can’t vouch for today’s quality (although Lee S was a dealer again for awhile when they returned to the US market and it seems from what I hear the quality is very good). They have however dropped the Jacob Winter case. I’m sure to try to keep the cost down. I do think they supply a gig bag now. Buddy Rogers in Cincy took over the distribution in the US from Lee I believe. There were F,Eb & CC variants of this design before - those have very wonky intonation. I would stay away from them personally.

[BuddyRogersMusic]

The LBB-701 is indeed a fantastic small tuba that punches above its weight class. I would echo all of Tofu's comments as to its effectiveness. It is a 3/4 instrument built with top-notch materials and craftsmanship that I'm targeting both students/smaller players and the aging player that doesn't see the need to heft a 4/4 or larger tuba around anymore. The 701 now ships with a Soundline gig bag but MTS hard cases are available for additional cost. I currently have two in stock at our Union Centre location of Willis Music (owners of Buddy Roger's Music Repair). We're offering the LBB-701 for $5820 and shipping is currently on us if anyone wanted to take one for a test drive.

[bloke]

This one checks a lot of boxes for me as an “old man” tuba. Anyone here actually play one? What did you think?

If you think you need a smaller tuba than the one you have, what's the best price you've found on that model?

[DonO.]

This one checks a lot of boxes for me as an “old man” tuba. Anyone here actually play one? What did you think?

If you think you need a smaller tuba than the one you have, what's the best price you've found on that model?

Best and only price would be the $5820 at Buddy Roger’s (Willis)

[donn]

From a very casual web search, in Europe you'd be lucky to get that price - in Euros, so at the current exchange rate you'd be paying significantly more.

[BuddyRogersMusic]

Our Lidl stock is pre-tariff so prices are lower. New stock will be more expensive as the manufacturer has raised prices and shipping costs are nuts. I just had a shipment delivered and am waiting for the freight/Customs/tariff charges to hit. All that combined will tell me how much prices will have to be raised in the future.

[Mary Ann]

There is a demo of the 701 along with all the other demos of BBb tubas in the "c tubas suck" thread. You can hear it is a smaller tuba, but you can hear it is a BBb too. At the very end of that video, like the last two minutes, they do Bruckner on all of them one after the other.

[Lee Stofer]

The Josef Lidl LBB-701 BBb tuba is a very well-designed tuba, listed by Josef Lidl as a 1/2 size instrument. For our purposes in the US, we've always referred to it as a 3/4 BBb tuba. I have played one in up to a 40-piece concert band, where the conductor (a low brass player) and the bass trombonist were both quite surprised by how much support could be had from a very small instrument.

I like the fact that the rotors, slides, everything about them is so well-made. I sold a number of Lidl LBB-701's to middle schools in Georgia before I
moved to Iowa nearly 20 years ago. I will occasionally run into former school customers at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago, where I'll hear that they just
love the Josef Lidl tubas, still in use after years of middle school use.

The Josef Lidl Company, as many others have in the last 10 years or so, went into bankruptcy/reorganization, and the new owners are even more serious about quality offerings. To this end, when I asked about the 3/4 CC version (LCB 702), the CEO told me that they were no longer offering the cut-down-to CC option, because the intonation was not good enough, and that they are running at capacity to keep up with the demand of what they are already making. Lidl has invested in improved tooling, and I'm told that their valve and slide tolerances are better and more consistent than ever. Having worked on the older, and now the newer models, I am convinced that this is the case.

I am also convinced that you cannot buy a better quality new rotary brass instrument for the price than Josef Lidl, and they are better than a number of higher-priced instruments.