TubeNet

Hey guys,

Now the company is asking me last second to take both my tuba AND bass on a flight with me to China, along with two months of luggage.

I just don't want to deal with dragging ANY instruments to the other side of the world, especially after I just had them put in the contract that they would provide the instruments for me.

I think the issue of the company is that they are all procrastinators and are having issues finding instruments to rent. Anyone know of any place I can rent Bb tubas?

I don't know about renting, but you could try Tom at Mack Brass who sells Chinese tubas. He might know someone:
804-926-7707 or Email: Sales@mackbrass.com" target="_blank
Similarly Wessex Tubas:
616-843-6888 sales@wessex-tubas.com" target="_blank

Good luck!

Awesome, thanks. Both didn't answer the phone, but it's awfully early the day after Christmas, so I'll try to be patient.

Where in China? It is a big country

It's a big tour. Company is based in Beijing, they said they are finding backline in Shanghai, and the tour starts in Wuhan.

As of last month, here's the itinerary, but we're already departing a week later, so this will probably be way different:

Wuhan, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Chongqing, Qingdao, Jinan, Tianjin, Beijing, Shanghai

With all the phone calls, messages and other correspondence I had in the last few days, I really appreciate everyone's help on this!

I compiled a list of contacts and sent them to the company, and they still tried to find the tuba without the help.

My saving grace is when they "found" me a "tuba": a Yamaha YEP-621. Once I told them that is not a tuba, I was able to get one Chinese contact to slip in and talk to them directly. He is the bass trombone player with the China Phil, and was able to speak to them in Mandarin exactly what I needed.

Again, thanks for all the help! If nothing else goes right on this tour, I know I will be playing a BBb TUBA!

Good luck. Two years ago my wife and I played in an orchestra touring China - same time of year, so it may have been the same organizer - they had several orchestras touring at the same time. They were to supply basses, cellos, and a harp. Virtually everywhere we got almost unplayable student-line instruments. The bassists and cellists had to bring their own strings and set up all the instruments before the concerts, just to barely get by. I think about half the concerts the harpist didn't play because the harp was unplayable.

A decade ago I toured Taiwan with the Artie Shaw Orchestra. We were supposed to get a professional quality upright bass selected by an orchestra bass player. We got a beginner electric bass. When they finally gave us an upright, it was student quality and the strings were wound backwards on the pegs.

HA! These stories are always great. The interesting thing is, they think that "student grade electric bass" is close enough to "professional upright bass".

I have heard that the company told me that now that they have a tuba (as provided by Raymond Lam, China Phil bass trombone player), they will be renting a different instrument in each venue. I don't think they liked my response that if the bass is unplayable, I simply can't play it. I think we have a breakdown of how the English language works at this point...

Here's the diagrams I have sent to the company. I thought that literally drawing them a picture would help, but I guess not.

The original pics are much larger, I just don't know why they shrunk when posting them here.

Hi,

Had similar problem exactly a year ago when doing such a tour with an orchestra. Presumably the same type of organisation (invited by the Chinese Government via a local representative, they arrange and pay for everything etc.)

The orchestra I went with had more seat tickets than people so the solution was to take the Tuba with me in the cabin (in a gig bag) on its own seat ticket.
Actually that does not really fit in a seat but the people of Air China were kind enough to store it in a closet in the Business Class. Worked perfectly both ways.
(Travelled from Frankfurt/Europe though)

The hard-case travelled as luggage and was used by the orchestra to ship some percussion stuff.

So long story short: check whether there are spare tickets.
Hope this helps.

(And as for rented stuff: the locally rented basses were cheap things that were different every time and the rented timpani had card-board-ish kettles and after disassembly to tryband fix them they were found to contain assorted rubbish.)

Your diagrams are very clear and should be helpful, but here is one recommendation that I would offer based on my experience with attempting to be provided with different pieces of equipment (not musical instruments) by people who either lacked full fluency in English or lacked knowledge of the technical domain ...

Do NOT suggest alternatives. I know you have done this in order to be flexible and also to help them in finding what would be satisfactory to you, but in my experience when you say "I need something like ..." or "... is preferred", or "either ... or ... or ...", a common reaction to this is for the supplier to conclude that you don't REALLY need exactly what you've mentioned and that something "like" it will do -- where they (with basically no knowledge or experience) will be the ones deciding what is "like" it. The result will often be that you get a collection of stuff that bears little if any resemblance to what you thought your requirements stated.

For example, if you need an Underwood pickup, then SAY that an Underwood pickup is exactly what you need. Do NOT say things like "I will bring my own pickup ..." because that tells them you don't really need a pickup.

If you NEED a rubber end on the endpin, then just SAY that. Don't say that one would make things easier since that doesn't communicate that you need one.

Displaying a Conn 5J tuba and then saying you "need something similar" will be totally unhelpful to people who don't know what they're doing. To a lot of people a YEP-621, or an Amati oval euphonium, IS "similar" to a Conn 5J. If you want front valves, then SAY you want front valves.

If you want D'Addario Helicore Hybrid strings, then REQUIRE this. Don't give a reason or justification for it, or talk about their cost or what strings the bass may have. Anything except the REQUIREMENT will just be confusing to the supplier.

In general, provide only your REQUIREMENTS and no additional information, even if you think it would be helpful. That just opens the door for misinterpretation and confusion on the part of the supplier. If there really are some alternatives in some cases, make this very clear, saying something like "I need either x or y or z, but NO OTHER ALTERNATIVES WILL BE ACCEPTABLE." However, even that is dangerous.

That's a very good point. I will keep that in mind in the future.

As it turns out, I was instrumental in finding the proper tuba, and I have hand-fed them the double bass needs (even if I should have made them requirements), but they are still screwing that up, according to the American presenter. Apparently, the presenter won't budge on this (and a few other issues) until it's determined that it is most definitely a professional bass. And the presenter has already given me the go-ahead to refuse to play any instrument, ESPECIALLY a bass that could possibly injure my hands.

Because of the bass not being taken care of, the Chinese promoter is in breach of contract (along with four other issues, but I am told I am number 2 on the list to be handled), and the American companies refuse to start the production until these obligations are met.

So it looks like it was a tuba and a bass that are at the forefront of priority. Who'd have thunk it?

Watching the conversation on the drum set is fun, though:

"I know you asked for either a Pearl or Yamaha drum set, but we looked everywhere and could not find one. Here is a picture of a Mapex drum set, and I have been assured it is a high quality professional kit."

(Mapex is a low-end student line drum brand)

Hey guys,

Just had to fill you in on the tour stuff.

First of all, I ended up finding the tuba myself. Greg Black got me in contact with the bass trombone player of the China Phil, who was able to get the manufacturer of JP Brass on board with providing exactly what I needed. The horn was pretty dang good. The factory didn't have what I needed laying around, so they put one together for the tour. I actually was considering buying it at the end of the tour, but due to all the confusion, I don't even think the tour managers even knew where the horn ended up by the time I left for the states. Disappointing; this really was a great playing instrument.

The bass that they provided me for the single show we did was pure crap. And the funny thing is the owner told our contact that he "didn't see any problems with the instrument" when I told them we need to get a luthier over to fix many unacceptable issues on it.

Anyway, here's the short story: we played one show, and there were so many contract breaches, that Barry Weissler, owner of the rights to Chicago: the Musical, pulled the cast after the first show and left 14 musicians and crew in China on a paid vacation for a month.

And here's some extra info about the show:

http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/01/28/64898.htm" target="_blank" target="_blank