TubeNet

Cerveny and amati are pretty much the same company...

I'd say late 70's early 80's.

It would probably be a good horn for an undergrad student.

The school I went to had one of these, and I remember it being playable in tune, with some slide pulling. However, I have heard that Cerveny tubas vary wildly from one to the next, so your best bet is to test it.

Cerveny was very active in laying out the designs of rotary brass instruments from before 1850 and remained a very large independent maker until the communists conglomerated all the independent Bohemian makers into state owned Amati.

Amati survived privatization after the fall of the wall and uses Cerveny as the brand for its higher grade rotary brasses. Piston brasses and lower grade rotary brasses are sold under the Amati name. All their rotary brasses are basically of the same designs, only the Cerveny instruments tend to have better alloys (and more valves where applicable).

I have tried especially one Amati instrument that played very well, but which had transmission parts made out of brass, where nickel silver had been preferable.

Klaus

Used to have one of these at church. Really full, rich sound. Played in tune but with clanky valves. A local guy, Rich Ita, redid the linkage for us($200 10 years ago) and solved the worst of the clanks. A retired tubenetter wound up with it and sold it on this site. Here is a link. viewtopic.php?f=4&t=46917&p=434471#p434471" target="_blank" target="_blank

Axial play?

This may be caused by wear or by badly seated bottom plates.