Tonight...
two weeks ago. HEEHEE
Daniel C. Oberloh
Oberloh Woodwind and Brass Works
www.oberloh.com
Alexander Census
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Daniel C. Oberloh
- pro musician
- Posts: 547
- Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2004 9:22 pm
- Location: Seattle Washington
This one is not my tuba but the owner is an occasional visitor to this forum. He got this one third or forth-hand and has been playing on it since 1953! We just completed squaring it away for him and will be shipping it back to him in Arkansas next week. Can't say I have ever seen one of these before. Its about a hundred years old +/-. Fun instrument, string linkage? Go figure. Pretty cool horn if I do say so myself.
Tonight...
two weeks ago. HEEHEE
Daniel C. Oberloh
Oberloh Woodwind and Brass Works
www.oberloh.com
Tonight...
two weeks ago. HEEHEE
Daniel C. Oberloh
Oberloh Woodwind and Brass Works
www.oberloh.com
-
The Big Ben
- 6 valves
- Posts: 3169
- Joined: Sat Dec 16, 2006 11:54 am
- Location: Port Townsend, WA
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Brendan Bohnhorst
- pro musician
- Posts: 73
- Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2004 9:59 am
- Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan
Alexander tubas
Seeing as I own two Alexanders right now, I should probably post something on here. At one point I had three Alexander tubas, a pair of CC's and an F.
This CC was once owned by Oscar Lagasse, the long time tubist with the Detroit symphony. It was sold to a student of his around 30 years ago, and in turn sold to me about 3-4 years ago. I played it for a while and then sold it to a different former student of Mr. Lagasse. This particular Alex was interesting to me because it also had solid nickel silver valves, bearing plates and all. I think that the tuning rod was added when Oscar had the tuba. I was told this tuba is from the early 1950's. The fifth valve is left hand and is a minor third, or 23 combination.
The next Alexander I still own and play everyday. The scale is great, and that's for any tuba, not just an Alexander! I purchased this tuba from Phil Sinder at Michigan State. He bought this tuba from Dan Perentoni while he was playing with the Houston Symphony a while back. I believe it to be a very early 1970's Alexander. The fifth valve on this tuba is a flat half step (3/4 step valve) and has an extension soldered onto the tuba to make it a minor third, like an old Mirafone set up. All you have to do is re-route the fifth valve tuning slide through the extension on the front of the tuba.
This is the best picture that I have of my Alexander F on my laptop. You can check out my brass quintet website http://www.sapphirebrass.com and look at a few more photos of me with it. This tuba was owned by John MacEnulty of the St. Louis Symphony for a long time. I was lucky enough to meet one of his former students and purchase it almost 8 years ago. This tuba is everything that an Alexander F is supposed to be, minus the bad intonation. I only use 2 alternate fingerings on this thing. Everything else lines up quite well, only your standard F tuba slide pulls. It also has a flat half step fifth valve. It had a left hand fifth valve when I bought it. And now it has a thumb operated fifth valve and the original left hand mechanism is still on the tuba. Kevin Powers did the work for me a few years ago, and he did a wonderful job.
This CC was once owned by Oscar Lagasse, the long time tubist with the Detroit symphony. It was sold to a student of his around 30 years ago, and in turn sold to me about 3-4 years ago. I played it for a while and then sold it to a different former student of Mr. Lagasse. This particular Alex was interesting to me because it also had solid nickel silver valves, bearing plates and all. I think that the tuning rod was added when Oscar had the tuba. I was told this tuba is from the early 1950's. The fifth valve is left hand and is a minor third, or 23 combination.
The next Alexander I still own and play everyday. The scale is great, and that's for any tuba, not just an Alexander! I purchased this tuba from Phil Sinder at Michigan State. He bought this tuba from Dan Perentoni while he was playing with the Houston Symphony a while back. I believe it to be a very early 1970's Alexander. The fifth valve on this tuba is a flat half step (3/4 step valve) and has an extension soldered onto the tuba to make it a minor third, like an old Mirafone set up. All you have to do is re-route the fifth valve tuning slide through the extension on the front of the tuba.
This is the best picture that I have of my Alexander F on my laptop. You can check out my brass quintet website http://www.sapphirebrass.com and look at a few more photos of me with it. This tuba was owned by John MacEnulty of the St. Louis Symphony for a long time. I was lucky enough to meet one of his former students and purchase it almost 8 years ago. This tuba is everything that an Alexander F is supposed to be, minus the bad intonation. I only use 2 alternate fingerings on this thing. Everything else lines up quite well, only your standard F tuba slide pulls. It also has a flat half step fifth valve. It had a left hand fifth valve when I bought it. And now it has a thumb operated fifth valve and the original left hand mechanism is still on the tuba. Kevin Powers did the work for me a few years ago, and he did a wonderful job.