Posted by Lee Stofer on January 13, 2002 at 16:35:37:
In Reply to: St Petersburg Question posted by Mark LeGault on January 13, 2002 at 12:08:30:
Mark,
As a repairman, I have worked on three of them now, and here's what I've found. One person I knew while stationed in Germany paid nearly nothing for a 3-valve model, and got what he paid for. The instrument had a great sound, but the valves were really poor. I had to work on them a long time to make the horn even close to reasonably usable.
A private school in my area had one, and again it was valve problems. This one was a 4-valve model, that had the original-quality valves. To give you an idea of what it looked like inside the valves, I could have finished them that well with a file from the hardware store, and there were no alignment marks on the rotor bearing or rotor shaft under the back cap. I understand that at least one company in the US bought a number of these instruments for $800-900, had the instrument shipped from Russia to Germany where the valves were reworked, then sent here for distribution. I have played a several of these, and they played well-enough. However, I've worked on one of these that had dents in the bottom bow and 4th branch. The instrument is not lacquered, but is nickel-plated. Nickel is very hard, and this process makes the body of the horn essentially one piece, so that removing the bottom bow is a major, major job. In other words, you might think you're getting a bargain now, but it may cost you a fortune to get it properly repaired later.
You'd be better off to get a good used, or reconditioned BBb tuba. You would pay less and could get an outstanding horn. Unless you had an employer that said you had to have a CC tuba or you were fired, nobody's "gotta" have a CC. My observations and $0.02.
-Lee Stofer