Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: $NEW$ tuba on ebay - -what is it?


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Posted by Graham Smith on May 16, 2001 at 21:44:41:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: $NEW$ tuba on ebay - -what is it? posted by Kenneth Sloan on May 16, 2001 at 21:10:12:

That makes sense to me, Ken. I am just not where I was when I was playing 4 hrs. a day back in 68-69 in every ensemble I could find on campus. I could playtest a horn then and get a pretty good read on it, although the horn I played was a BAT 25J. Until I was in the Navy overseas and dug up a 3/4 BBb (don't recall the brand) out of a closet to play in the base band, I didn't know such things existed.
You're a returnee, evidently. Looked at your website and saw the Brown U photos. How long were you out? What did you do in the way of a starter horn to get back?
I don't want to buy a "junker," but going out and buying something like a MW 25 at this point is probably not domestically negotiable.
The Weril 3/4 (680?) looked interesting to me, but it is a 3/4 horn, and in the kind of ensembles that I would probably play after getting back my lip, such as a large community band, it might get lost in the noise.
Also, as I mentioned in a post a little earlier, I have a 13 year old bari-sax playing son and have been thinking that he might want to try low brass. He plays just about everything else he can lay hands on, piano, electric guitar, alto sax (his 1st wind instrument) and he has been known to pick up a baritone horn and try it. If he gets into this, a 3/4 horn might be good for him. OTOH, he is about 5'9" tall and probably could handle a 4/4 with a little work.

I dunno, Ken. There are just sooooo many choices out there.

What I don't want is something that would be beat up, unwieldly, and not something I could then sell to someone else if I want to trade up, which I hope would be the case.

The VMI's looked nice, as did the Schmidts (VMI made, I understand). However, unless I found a really good dent and sratch special, a 2103 or the equivalent Schmidt would probably go about $3k without gig bag or case. That's quite a bit over the $1700-$1800 for the Weril Bbb (also without bag or case.)
Your suggestion of getting a used middle-of-the-road horn from some respected merchant got me thinking. I'll look into that.

I think I may get in touch with the local music dept here in town, which is where I finished long long ago. They now have a number of tuba students there and there may be someone on the faculty with some thoughts on this process.

Thanks again for the insight. The Conventional Wisdom of "play every horn you can find before you buy anything" just has no relevance for me with my long-gone lip.

Graham



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