Posted by Mike on September 24, 2003 at 09:25:26:
Hi Everybody,
I apologize in advance for this being so long, but I wanted to give the experts here some background on my tuba playing. I play tuba for fun (no money involved) in a brass quintet and the occasional brass choir but nothing larger. I would rate my ability as a player at about a B-. When I played every day in college, over ten years ago now, I was definitely better and actually my summer job during college was playing tuba "professionally" at a local amusement park. I currently play on a pretty banged up Yamaha YBB105 that is a borrowed school horn (my wife is a teacher). I have recently started thinking about buying my own horn so I wouldn't have to worry about the school suddenly needing their horn back and leaving me with nothing. I have scoured the internet in search of tuba resources and luckily found this site which is now gets a daily visit from me.
I was surpassed to find out that it looks like there are some viable options for decent 4 valve BBb tubas that don't cost a ton. The ones keep popping up as good values are the Jupiter 582 (and the 482 but since this is newer I am unable to find much info on it) and the Weril 680. If I could keep the cost at $3,500 or less, including case, that would be ideal. I know that there are occasionally good deals on used horns, but there is something in my personality that makes me really want to get a new horn. It's kind of like the excitement you get when you buy a new car vs. a used car. I guess I want to put that first dent in it myself.
I live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and I am not aware of any local shops that have multiple brands of tubas that I can play to help me choose one to buy. That does not mean that such a shop does not exist, it simply means that I don't know of any. I am a little leery about spending $2-$3K on a tuba and getting it shipped to me from half way across the country only to discover that the quality is shoddy or the playability is not what I expected.
Do any of you have any advice on what my best plan of attack should be to make sure that if I do buy a horn, I get one that I can play for many years and not regret my purchase?
Thanks,
Mike