Posted by Lee Stofer on March 17, 2003 at 08:37:51:
In Reply to: Why do we put up with it! posted by LV on March 16, 2003 at 16:31:06:
"Especially at the price we pay......" You hit the nail on the head, for economics is the answer. Tuba-making has never been highly profitable, and there is no way to get around the 400 or more man-hours required to hand-build a top-quality tuba. Multiply that figure by a nice wage for highly-skilled craftsmen, and you'll figure that our tubas should be costing between $11,000.00 and $18,000.00. If you buy a new tuba for less than that, you got a great deal, or you got less than a world-class tuba.
In the late '70's when I bought my first new tuba, which was a first-line hand-built tuba, it cost as much as a new compact car. The same model car now cost three times as much, is assembled by robots, and no one thinks twice about that. So why are we griping about paying twice as much for something that must be made by humans who must feed their families? Getzen would still be making their fine CC tubas if it had been profitable enough. Gus Buescher made some wonderful tubas, but he went broke at least twice. Ever wonder why J.W. York & Sons is no longer in business?
People want cheap, and they are getting cheap from manufacturers. Some manufacturers are trying to give consumers all the popular choices, ie, key of CC, 5 valves, etc., etc., and then trying to build them as fast as possible to make it profitable. In the process, joints sometimes do not get soldered, valves are sometimes fit too loosely, bell rim wires are not fit tightly enough or soldered well-enough, slide tubes are out of parallel, solder globs are left in the tubing, and tubing is sometimes not cut to the right length, and on and on. If you don't believe me, you should visit my shop some time and see what I find when working on various horns.
Go ahead, demand the best, but the vote with your pocketbook is the one that counts.
Lee Stofer