Posted by Klaus on October 04, 2001 at 21:42:03:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Walter E. Sear BBb tubas posted by Graham Smith on October 04, 2001 at 20:33:22:
This posting of yours made me refind that instrument on the auction.
Yersterday I asked the seller this question:
"Please give me a hint, why you do believe, that this tuba was made in (ex-)GDR.
I have never met any evidence telling that B&S made front action piston tubas until after the German unification in 1990, so I would be most interested in a reply.
Personally I think, that this instrument is made by De Prins intended for the US market. The Dutch-Belgian-French tradition has been the top valved piston tubas."
No reply coming in so far.
Until B&S shortly after 1990 ended up in the same conglomerate by ownership as WM, their piston instruments were terrible. Albeit better than the mainland Asian stuff sold to innocent parents of beginning students nowadays.
One could say that the GDR piston instruments, especially baritones, euphs, and tubas, only suffered from three ailments:
The lack of proper drilling and honing machinery for the pistons and casings.
To which was added bad plating of the pistons.
The acoustical design which was just an unbelievably sad joke.
And that literarily unvelievable, because the B&S rotary tubas were very high class, with the Symphonie 5 and 6 valve F's considered outstanding world class by top rank players (I have heard of Roger Bobo as an endorser back then). Even the student/amateur line Weltklang rotary tubas were outstanding. The # of valve did not exceed 4. The leverage mechanism had S-links and T-joints. But all of the tubing, branches, bows, and bells were right out of the recipe-book used for the B&S top line.
The comparable rotary baritones and euphs could be discussed in the light of US/UK tradition of piston instruments. But one could not call them bad and be considered honest at the same time.
Sorry for gibberishing on common board knowledge, so I will end with up bringing my answer to the question, whether I would pay $2500 or 3000 for the instrument in question:
"No way!"
Klaus