Posted by Mark Heter on July 28, 2003 at 23:09:58:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Joe Tarto & His 8 foot tuba? Lou Long? posted by Carole Nowicke on July 28, 2003 at 10:17:25:
In the day, if you were hooked up with a "name" band, it was generally pretty easy to get a horn for nothing from Conn as long as you had your picture taken with it. Also, Conn was so huge (their research building was bigger than the entire King factory) the price point was pretty reasonable. I would think if you were touring with Sousa, you had your choice of Conns. Star power sold horns back then the way it does guitars today. I also remember hearing stories from older guys (tuba and bass players) who were so busy they had duplicate instruments parked at each of their jobs. Those were the days... Unless Eric Clapton changes to tuba, I don't see things turning around real soon.
BTW Joe's tuba was not 8 feet in height - it just looked that way because Joe wasn't very tall...