Mr. Olka, so which wins?

[tmmcas1]

(BTW, Yamaha Canada has 3 or 4 YamaYorks in their warehouse..)..
Mark

They may (??) remain there for a bit.

Or not....

[PMeuph]

Watch out, soon Yamaha will sell Cryogenically frozen Yamayorks at a premium.


For the whole Canadians pay more argument. As someone who's made that argument here several times and many times in real life. The reality is that prices are only fair once in a while. (When the CAD is weak vis-a-vis the USD) As soon as they come close to par, the Canadian prices are not adjusted so it becomes cheaper to buy in the US. I would speculate that Yamaha Canada doesn't buy from Yamaha USA but rather from Yamaha Japan. That said, Yamaha USA will sell to any* Yamaha distributor in Canada (*Motorcycle shops, etc). So if a Canadian wanted a Yamaha tuba, site-unseen, they could wait til the USD drops and buy it from their local motorcycle/skidoo/jet-ski vendor....


The other aspect of the low-cost argument in the US, is that Americans have access to a lot more low cost products (in Hardware stores, grocery stores, Walmart, etc). When I cross the border, I sometime stop at places like Walmart where I can buy $2 cans of brake cleaner (As opposed to $7 here) and a whole bunch of little like that. If you compare princess auto to harbor freight, it's not the big items that vary so much in price, it's the little ones.
https://www.princessauto.com/en/detail/ ... -p2910348e" target="_blank" target="_blank
https://www.harborfreight.com/6-inch-ba ... 96210.html" target="_blank" target="_blank

I speculate this has to do with the larger market and the fact that stores can sell more since areas are more densely populated. And also, not taking into account the exchange(as it fluctuates) minimum wages are lower in the US.


PS. 13% is HST(in Ontario) not GST. Taxes vary from 5% to 15% depending on the province. So someone buying a Yamayork should do it in Alberta, where they would save $5k by doing so.

[royjohn]

bloke wrote:

Whether it is the best of them or the least of them, I don't see these 6/4 things as being the most efficient nor the clearest sounding tubas - particularly not for symphony orchestra use. The fact that some of my betters use them doesn't convince me otherwise. Although this may sound insulting or demeaning, I don't mean it to be: I really believe that a lot of the allure is the look - as I have compared before, just like that of a big Harley Davidson motorcycle.

I find this an interesting and quite sensible idea and I'm curious, bloke...seriously just curious and not trying to start something...what instruments or types of instruments you would see as "most efficient and clearest sounding" for use in a symphony orchestra.

[barry grrr-ero]

Doesn't some of that have to do with the halls, as well as the conductor's wishes and - to some degree - the opinion of your trombone cohorts (particularly bass bone)?

A York or a Miraphone "Siegfried" is just right for Chicago's Orchestra Hall. But in Vienna's Musikverein, those could be quite overpowering. I don't think Alan Baer sounds too big in David Geffen Hall. John Fletcher seriously asked me after a concert, if I thought his sound on the Holton 345 was too big in relation to the rest of the orchestra (L.S.O.). I answered him honestly: "yes". He sounded great, of course, but his sound was too big in relation to his trombone section. They tended to play with a more narrow, pointed sound than we're often times used to. It could have been that Abbado liked the trombones kept in check, I don't know. Anyway, . . .

[doublebuzzing]

A good comparison is the clearness of sound Chester Schmitz had with his Alex compared to the diffuse sound of the Yorkbrunner he later played. I preferred the Alex but obviously the conductor had other ideas and made him switch.

[doublebuzzing]

bloke wrote:

Whether it is the best of them or the least of them, I don't see these 6/4 things as being the most efficient nor the clearest sounding tubas - particularly not for symphony orchestra use. The fact that some of my betters use them doesn't convince me otherwise. Although this may sound insulting or demeaning, I don't mean it to be: I really believe that a lot of the allure is the look - as I have compared before, just like that of a big Harley Davidson motorcycle.

I find this an interesting and quite sensible idea and I'm curious, bloke...seriously just curious and not trying to start something...what instruments or types of instruments you would see as "most efficient and clearest sounding" for use in a symphony orchestra.

There aren't a ton of recordings of this individual playing with this orchestra from this era...but - aside from anything that has been designed since...
- Could you hear him on those recordings, or was he being drowned out ?
- Was the tuba sound "good" and "clear"...??

Did you or did you not enjoy the significant edge he had on his tone at louder volumes?

[Ken Crawford]

This has strayed off topic just a tad...

Watch this interview. Mr. Pokorny refers to a Mirafone 186 as being a large orchestral tuba. So there you go. Maybe size doesn't matter, but instead how you use it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZJ3Ux5TrCw" target="_blank