Re: St Petersburg Question


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Posted by Steve Dedman on January 13, 2002 at 12:50:01:

In Reply to: St Petersburg Question posted by Mark LeGault on January 13, 2002 at 12:08:30:

St. Pete's are decent personal horns, especially for the price. However, they have no business being school-owned horns IMO. There are several local high schools that have them, and one of our local repairmen is quite fond of them, since they gave him a merry Christmas this year. All of the schools have had numerous repairs needed in the last couple of years. A local college bought a couple for use in brass methods class, and one of them was not playable after two semesters. Don't get me wrong, I think that if someone is looking for a decent BBb tuba to use in a community band and the occaisional church gig, the St. Pete is not a bad choice. But they simply do not make the grade when it comes to the daily use of a high school or college band situation. The times that I've seen them work in that situation, they have been privately owned, not school owned, and the owner has taken pains not to abuse the horn. The same cannot be said for many players of school-owned instruments. For school use, the VMI's in the same price range are a far better choice, or for a little more $cratch, the King 2341 makes the St. Pete sound like a kazoo. Like the old commercial says, you can pay me now or you can pay me later. You can buy the durability up front, or you can buy the repairs over the long term. But you'll still wind up paying about the same.

I don't know if they can be ordered directly from the factory anymore or not, but I wouldn't do that. Many of the statements that you have read in the archives deal with the poor quality of the valves on some of these horns. Those are horns that have had the valves re-worked for the US importer of these tubas. I have never played one with the "factory" valves, but it is my understanding that they are just plain offensive in their poor quality.

At this point, their CC tuba is still in the R&D stage. The one that I played was small, about a 3/4, and didn't have any character at all in the sound, and had very little real projection. I know at least two orchestra pros tried it, and had the same reaction, and it was duly returned for refinement. So you'll have to wait awhile for that CC. You could probably find a far superior CC tuba for about the same money on the used pages at Baltimore Brass or Dillon's. It may not be shiny, but it'll be a player.

I won't tell you not to buy a St. Pete because I don't know your situation. But I will say to go into it with your eyes and ears wide open.

SD


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