TubeNet

2004 Besson 983
2001 Miraphone 186 5 valve CC


I've bought others, sold others, play others regularly, but these instruments have remained a part of my life since their purchase. If I have to blindly drag a tuba around with me, not knowing what or when I'm gonna play next... the 983 is the way to go.

This coming July I will have owned my Boosey & Hawkes Imperial compensating baritone for 45 years.

My Yorkbrunner was bought new in 1994. Even though I rarely pull it out these days, I just can't fathom selling it. It's so... big, and it sounds so... good. I'll never be a regular symphonic player again (unless I move to Israel) now that I'm a devout Sabbath observer, and really do not have a need to keep it. But it's just so... pretty, and sounds so... nice.

My daughter is only 18 months, but is already starting to play pocket trumpet. Maybe when she's, say, 24 months we'll give the 6/4 a try.

Yamaha YCB-621 since 1990.

Played many a quintet gig with it!

Bought my 1974 Mirafone 186CC new in May 1975, so that works out to almost 37 years. For 15 years it was the only tuba I owned so I played it everywhere - concert band, quintet, orchestra, baseball games (!), German band, etc. etc.
Nowadays I'm fortunate enough to own more than one tuba(*), but I still practice on the 186 every day. It's like coming home.
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(*) When the love of my life teases me about owning multiple tubas, I point out that I've played every one of 'em for money!

Funny that you should ask.

I never did have a tuba of my own, new or used (until laying my hands on a used one, six months ago) - it was always one that belonged to the school, or college, or town band, or the Army (19th and 173rd Army bands, Fort Dix, NJ), or the Washington Redskins marching band, where I was in the sousaphone line for four or five years in the early '70's.

The only thing I ever did have was, and is, a King 26 mouthpiece, which must have been new when I got it, some sixty-three years ago.

Even when I made my fourth appearance with Ted Mack on the Original Amateur Hour (they seemed to have a weakness for tuba solos), it was before I had completed my second week of basic training at Fort Dix. I had to get permission from the company commander (actually the company clerk, who was adept at assuming authority) to get a pass, normally not available before the fourth week, and tell his producer, Oscar Schumacher, (who must have kept quite a card file of people playing the tuba or musical saw) that, if they wanted me that Saturday night in NYC, they'd have to rent a tuba for me. They did, and I made my appearance, in my private's brown uniform, Eisenhower jacket and all, playing (and flubbing up, quite a bit) "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny," theme and variations, severely abbreviated.

Anyway, last August, scanning the classifieds, as was my wont, looking for widows seeking to sell off their late husband's tuba, I spotted an ad (by someone who had picked up an old high school tuba in an auction lot), and ended up getting a somewhat beat-up 3/4 BBb Conn 15J. Not a great horn, I had determined from TubeNet, and sort of a clunker (frozen tuning slides, and needing corks, felts, springs, frets, etc.), but still more or less playable. I figured it would be good to have some fun with, entertaining myself, and reliving my boyhood (or adolescence), even if not for public performance. And it HAS been fun.

[I think I'll have to check out the Sebago Docksides; they sound pretty good.]

I got my Mirafone 184-4u as a graduation present from high school in 1972. It is now left at our cabin so we don't have to haul a horn back in forth. It allows me to practice there and my wife ( the hornist) and I can play duets on the back porch and serenade the critters and the trout in the stream. I have a 184-5u of similar vintage I still play some though my main horn of late is a PT20.
Scott

I purchased my miraphone 186 CC in 1978 and even though I recently bought a second horn (Besson 983) I still play the miraphone more often.

I know several folks with Miraphones they bought new in the 70's and still use.

My oldest tuba that I bought new is my Yamaha 621, which was Yamaha's first-year demo model at the end of the show season. It remains the only tuba I own that paid for itself. And, presumably because they were in their first year and as yet unproven in the market, their price was about half of what they were just a few years later.

I have only bought two other tubas new, and both of them were demonstrators, too. One (a Cerveny-made Sanders) I bought on price point and later traded it for a Miraphone. The second (a VMI-made Vespro) I bought while the Miraphone was being overhauled, and ended up preferring the Miraphone. I sold the VMI to a church. You might ask them--they still use it.

Rick "who usually prefers the low dollar cost of pre-depreciated tubas" Denney

I still play a Yamaha YEP-321 euphonium that I bought from Schilke's on Wabash Ave. in Chicago in 1972. It was sold to me as a demo so, technically, I'm not sure it counts here. According to Mr. Schilke it had been borrowed for a couple of performances of "Ein Heldenleben." Whether it's true or not, whenever I play a particularly good note on it I just assume I'm withdrawing one Mr. Gilbertsen put in the horn 40 years ago.

My Willson 2800 Euph is 31 years old and still plays great. I spoke with a well respected repair specialist a few months ago about an overhaul and he said there's no need. Other than pads, valve guides and dent repair these horns should stand up well for a long time especially the valves. My horn has lost some plating on the rest behind the valves and on the first valve where I rest my thumb but otherwise it's in great shape. He recommended annual cleanings and that's about it.

I have a pair of Sebago Docksides that I'm owned for about 31 years. They look a little rough, but they're still serviceable and VERY comfortable.

My wife of 35 years would probably say the same about me.

I purchased my Boosey and Hawkes Sovereign euphonium new in October of 1981. I also have a trumpet that my father purchased new for me in 1965.

I still have the Conn 3J in silver that I bought new in about 1991 and the MIraphone 1290 that I bought new (it was a show demo horn for Orpheus Music) in about 1992. Both horns are in great shape and sound good. Anything problems with the horns can usually be overcome by more time in the practice room. In fact the more time I spend practicing the better the horns sound. I wonder how they know? Phil

bought a used B&H Imperial Eb tuba in1985, still my number one, go-to horn. I have done a few modifications to it however.
k


(I know you asked for buying a horn new, but I figured so what, I will reply anyway. After all it has been 27 years with this baby! What can I say I was a poor grad student at the time.)

Well, not a tuba but I bought my Bach 36b new in 1972 and still uses it when needed, plays very well, would never part with it. This year it will be mine for 40 years. My oldest tuba though, the Higham Eeb, is from about 1879, bought but not new by me some decades later, and still plays great. Let's see, that is about 133 years old...

Bach Strad Bb trumpet. Serial # 7665. Made in NYC before move to Mt. Vernon. I bought it in 1947 and kept it until 1990's. Sold it for four times what I paid for it almost 50 years earlier.

Ace

I'm trying to think of something I bought new. The only thing I buy new is groceries. I have an old house, an old car, an old boat, an old wife, an antique motorcycle and my tuba is one year older than I am.
I bought my 1940 King Efer in 2003. It weighs a ton so I use a playing stand.
I even bought my wife a bottle of old wine for her birthday,Yesterday.

I still have my Olds 99 3 banger I bought "like" new in 1975. It was a "freight damage" horn but was fixed up to new condition by Best Repair in Oakland. I was the first owner.

Does that count?

I still use it for practice every once in a while. Not my favorite, but I can't seem to part with it.

I bought my King 1241 in the summer of 1972. It was the summer between my freshman and sophomore year in college. I was 19. You can do the math - I will have owned that tuba 40 years this summer (and I am now 59). I love that tuba as much now as I did 40 years ago, and maybe even more so. I still receive numerous compliments on its sound and its spot on intonation. It is a great all around medium bore 4/4 BBb tuba that can more than hold its own against any other 4/4 BBb tuba I have played with over the years. I have used it with great success supporting a 60 piece wind ensemble, as the principal tuba in a University Orchestra, in brass quintets and Dixieland Bands.