TubeNet

I have bought a few instruments from a guy north of Liverpool, who with no problems shipped the parcels with DHL. Easily trackable and very soon here after shipping. All by truck via a major hub in each of the two countries. Apparently even parcels nominally sent by air go by truck in Western Europe north of the Alps.

As I have had very few problems in dealing with sellers in the UK, I saw no problem buying an instrument on consignment in the UK, which happened to have belonged to one of my less frequent correspondents, an American playing in a German orchestra, but living in Belgium. I didn’t know he would sell it, hence the detour around the UK.

The problem is that the shipping company normally used by the British store, British Mail, will not give the seller a precise quote for shipping that instrument, even if the seller has already determined the volumetric weight as well as the real weight in KG. DHL doesn’t insure instruments for a sufficiently high sum.

Any suggestions?

Klaus

I realise this may be of no help at all, and is almost certainly not an "answer" as I haven't a clue about cross channel transport but.............

Aren't there ferries between UK and Denmark? If so, might it not be as cheap to do a round trip and pick it up direct, or possibly arrange to have it transported as bonded cargo on a specific sailing?

Have you tried posting this question on brass-forum.co.uk or one of the brass band enthusiast's websites? Or you could also ask someone like Mark Carter, aka "Mr Tuba," in Wales.

Royal Mail would pass a tuba-sized package onto their sister company Parcel Force ('Parcel Farce' has been more my experience) and I wouldn't trust them with any tuba of mine...

In the past I've always ended up using UPS as preferred carrier. You'll get an accurate online quote and whilst you may pay a little more than some competitors, I trust them to do a decent job.

Likewise, FedEx, BAX etc etc all do a good job in my experience.

Good luck.
MP

The seller found a very local company, Canterbury Carriers, which has a collaboration withe the larger TNT company. Anyway the instrument has arrived safely. Tuba in F, 5th valve in the 4th valve slide, to be played through my Giardinelli J4 mouthpiece.

Klaus

Sort of replying to an off board question:

I like riddles, and I had thought the mouthpiece model would have given the true answer:

This F tuba has 4 valves with the normal outlay, only they are all in the left hand. The 4th slide is just behind the top bow of this oval instrument, and it has a Stellventil (set-valve) lowering the instrument another semitone if the 4th valve is activated. This is a most unusual set-up for this very special type of tubas, which are not tubas in the normal understanding of TubeNet. It is a Hoyer, which means it comes out of the B&S factory.

On my Boosey F tuba I can play down to the double pedal F. On the Hoyer I can play the pedal Eb, and I will have a hard time going much lower. Ever.

Klaus