Posted by Dan on July 13, 2000 at 20:43:47:
In Reply to: tuba buying vs. burning money posted by Joey Silva on July 13, 2000 at 17:49:42:
Here's my take on the system from my limited years of throwing money into horns:
1. Tubas hold their value well if cared for. Actually, if you take care of a good horn for long enough, it may appreciate in value as it becomes a "classic." Also, some of the resale value depends on how good a salesman you can be.
2. I've not been lucky enough to play a lot of Hirsbrunners, but the argument over "handmade" is really subjective. If you consider "handmade" as "assembled with human hands," most musical instruments are. However, when it comes to the individual parts and pieces, this is where hand building tubas gets tricky. Some of the parts on a tuba are practically impossible to produce without a machine ( ever wonder how they made the bottom bow of a tuba?). So what it boils down to is, yes, they are built by hand, but some-to-many of the peices are produced by machines just for practicality.
3. Lemons are also subjective. What you may hate, another may love. But, occasionally a really bad horn comes along that no one likes to play. It stands to reason that a "hand built" horn would have more care in building, while a standard production tuba is put together be some guy who eats donuts while soldering on the leadpipe. But then again, machines make fewer mistakes, so the precision of a machine made tuba would be very good, and very consistent. So now what? Consider how many yamaha tubas are produced in a year versus how many Nirschls. If one in 20 of the premium handmade horns is a dud, then a few horns are out there that get put in the closet and forgotten. If 1 in 20 yamaha professional tubas was a dud, there would be a lot of dud Yamahas out there, and that's bad for business.
So I leave it up to you to try out every horn (even if you think you won't like it) you can before you buy. I went looking for a big Rudy Meinl and came back with a Miraphone C which I would hate to part with. I told myself I wouldn't go with a miraphone, but I kept my mind open. Who knows; you may stumble across _your_ horn and end up with something you never expected.
Best of luck.
Dan