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bloke wrote:Have you ever regretted selling a tuba, had a chance to play that tuba again years later, and then suddenly remembered why you sold it (immediately releasing yourself of your regrets) ?

http://www.chisham.com/tips/bbs/may2001/messages/54922.html wrote:Just for the record: I won the audition in St. Louis in November,1990, playing my Yorkbrunner. I sold my Alex to Morris Kainuma in 1988. It was a very fine instrument and had that classic sound and I actually had the chance to play it here in Powell Hall with our orchestra a couple years ago when it came up for sale. It just did not work in our acoustics and in our brass section. Too much work to keep up with the folks around me. As far as sheer beauty of sound I sacrifice nothing playing the Yorkbrunner; I'll leave that open to the folks out there who have heard the SLSO...

http://www.chisham.com/tips/bbs/jun2001/messages/60372.html wrote:...One other anecdote that will further explain: a couple years ago I had the opportunity to play my old Alex (which I had sold in 1988) here in the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. I took it in to a rehearsal of Tchaikovsky 4th and after about 15 minutes I put it in the corner and went back to the Yorkbrunner. The tonal output from the Alex could not compare to the Yorkbrunner, and I am refering to quality here also. I just had to work too hard to keep up with the rest of the brass and the orchestra. To varying degrees this is what you get with most of the big 6/4 piston tubas- Yorkbrunner, Nirschl, Holton, etc. I think it was Chester Schmitz who called them "an old man's tuba."

http://www.chisham.com/tips/bbs/jan1999/messages/7790.html wrote:I played an Alex for the better part of 20 years. I bought mine new from the factory in Germany in 1968. It was in unlacquered gold brass (yellow brass being standard) and had 4 valves. I payed $788 for it, including a hard case, airfreight from Frankfort, and 18% duty tax. Shortly after purchasing it I had the first valve tubing shortened and a big ring put on top of the first valve slide. This was my main instrument all through Eastman and I used it in the San Antonio Symphony until 1984 when I bought my Yorkbrunner. I used it for various applications but never as my main orchestral horn after that. Whenever I would take it into the orchestra after playing the Yorkbrunner it felt like I was playing a 184. Also, without exception, every conductor preferred the Yorkbrunner, as did the trombone players I worked with in San Antonio and Utah. I sold it (somewhat regrettably) in 1988 to Morris Kainuma, and the last I heard one of Dave Kirk's students owned it. (Does anyone know...?)

As I recall it had that beautiful classic German tuba sound. I also recall using lots of alternate fingerings and doing lots of slide pulling. Once in a while I get interrested in trying one again and when I do try one it amazes me how much effort it takes to play one. I played everything on mine at one time or another. I made it into the finals in quite a few auditions on it. I did not win another audition on it however. That happened for me on the Yorkbrunner...

http://www.chisham.com/tips/bbs/jan1999/messages/7791.html wrote:One more comment: I have a somewhat unsubstantiated fear that if I ever brought an Alex into the orchestra and my conductor heard it, he would want me to play one all the time.