Re: Re: again


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Posted by Rick Denney on November 29, 2003 at 17:25:47:

In Reply to: Re: again posted by NM on November 29, 2003 at 00:25:15:

If you try a King, and the F at the bottom of the staff sounds and feels nearly the same played open or fourth valve, and you don't mind any blemishes you might find, then you have a good one.

The Kings I've played that I wasn't as impressed with had fourth valves that would not resonate as well as the rest of the instrument for one reason or another. It was quite obvious when conducting the test above, or when comparing one horn to the next on its response and sound for the low F below low Bb.

It could be that a King with this malady could be adjusted to solve the problem by a shop that has a tuba expert tweaker on staff. That suggests to me that buying a tuba from a shop with such expertise is a good idea.

There may be other problems with some Kings that I'm not skilled enough to notice.

I've seen several with production flaws that would have been serious enough for me to reject the instrument, such as slides that were noticeably out of alignment, braces poked into the branches where they are soldered, and that sort of thing. The occasional spot where it wasn't buffed well enough or the occasional minor acid bleed is pretty much par for the course, though, and I wouldn't reject a good-playing King for minor blemishes like that. If you don't want those sorts of blemishes, either pay to have them repaired or buy a Rudy. Both require many more dollars.

Rick "who thinks the later batches seem to be more consistently good than the first batch" Denney


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