Re: Re: Re: Re: What's wrong with St. Petersburg Tubas


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Posted by Rick Denney on July 03, 2000 at 14:42:28:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: What's wrong with St. Petersburg Tubas posted by Sterling on July 03, 2000 at 14:21:18:

My intention is not (this time) to be argumentative, but it seems to me that a comparison between a St. Pete BBb and a Miraphone CC is a bit of apples and oranges. Of course the Miraphone is better.

I'd rather see a comparison of the St. Pete with another budget horn, like a Sanders or an Amati.

Even a well-used 186 CC will sell for $3000, well above the cost for a new St. Petersburg. It seems that few who could consider a Miraphone would also be in the market for a Russian horn.

But the right St. Petersburg (which is a whole other story) might be a good alternative to an beat-up Besson, if the buyer knows what he's getting into.

With the exception of the Weril and the St. Pete (speaking of apples and oranges), there is not much discussion of budget tubas out there. But those are the comparisons made by players who can afford nothing better.

For two-thirds of my high-school career, an affordable St. Petersburg might have saved me from having to play on a plastic sousaphone (a King, so Joe S. won't remind me how good the fiberglass Conn 26k's are). I'm mechanically inclined--I think even then I could have kept it working. But there were no large budget horns at the time--the only alternatives were small top-action student horns.

My first serious horn that I bought as an adult was a Sanders (really an Amati/Cerveny). It had a lot of the same faults as now attributed to the Russian tubas. The valves had to be worked on a little, the horn dented if you breathed on it, a solder joint was leaking as delivered, and so on. But it was still a worthy instrument, and vastly better than the Besson Stratford it replaced. Would I have rather bought a Miraphone? Of course, but that wasn't an option.

Rick "Cheap horns are unforgiving but not necessarily junk" Denney


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