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Yesterday Tyler and I completed our swap and I am now the happy new owner of a 25J and he has a new Cerveny 601 with which to amuse himself. To make the swap I drove from Boston to Buffalo and back yesterday which most of my non tuba playing friends though was insane. I suspect the attitude on this board will be "what's the big deal?" Anybody have any fun traveling to get a piece of gear stories?

Hrmm... 18 hours from (basically) Memphis -- that could be anywhere!

Arthur wrote:Yesterday Tyler and I completed our swap and I am now the happy new owner of a 25J and he has a new Cerveny 601 with which to amuse himself. To make the swap I drove from Boston to Buffalo and back yesterday which most of my non tuba playing friends though was insane. I suspect the attitude on this board will be "what's the big deal?" Anybody have any fun traveling to get a piece of gear stories?

I hope you two got some chicken wings while in town....road trips--if you have the time...are fun....

Back in April, I was moving from Minneapolis back to New York, and stopped in Ohio to make a trade... in a really sketchy Wal Mart parking lot. Uneventful, but a million times easier than shipping. I REALLY don't want to ship again after learning how much easier it is in person!

bloke wrote:I'm driving about eighteen hours (round trip) soon to get a tuba, because I just don't trust anyone to pack it properly or any shipper to handle it with enough care. (It's a particularly rare/valuable instrument.)

yep...Some things are worth driving for...or (even if not) trips are fun, if you have the time !

You finally found a used Siegfried BBb?

Buffalo to Boston for a 25J. No brainer. I'd do it. A couple of years ago I drove 200 miles for a little Yamaha 105 a woman was selling for $450. Looked almost new and case was same. Ended up selling it for $1200. Definately worth the drive. Enjoy that monster Conn!

bloke wrote:I'm driving about eighteen hours (round trip) soon to get a tuba, because I just don't trust anyone to pack it properly or any shipper to handle it with enough care. (It's a particularly rare/valuable instrument.)

yep...Some things are worth driving for...or (even if not) trips are fun, if you have the time !

I think I left white-knuckle marks on Bloke's dashboard from our road trip several years ago. He drives just like he plays tuba . . . pedal to the metal!

Berkeley CA to San Diego and back, all freeway driving. To pick up a mint Conn 52 J CC tuba, not wanting to risk damage from shipping. Left home at 4 a.m. and got back at midnight, totally exhausted.

Ace

New York to Indiana, several times.

I once drive from great falls my Montana to las Vegas (2000 mile round trip) on a weekend to make a tuba trade.

Compared to some of you, mine have been short trips:

Dallas, TX to Wichita, KS and back to Dallas in the same day for my Alexander and, for one of my previously owned tubas, Dallas, TX to Oklahoma City and back in the same day.

NW Georgia to Iowa to visit Lee Stofer and his shop a few times. Lee lives in some of the nicest country I've ever seen.

GC wrote:NW Georgia to Iowa to visit Lee Stofer and his shop a few times. Lee lives in some of the nicest country I've ever seen.

Is this heaven?

No... It's Iowa.

Arthur wrote:Yesterday Tyler and I completed our swap and I am now the happy new owner of a 25J and he has a new Cerveny 601 with which to amuse himself. To make the swap I drove from Boston to Buffalo and back yesterday which most of my non tuba playing friends though was insane. I suspect the attitude on this board will be "what's the big deal?" Anybody have any fun traveling to get a piece of gear stories?

I don't have any road stories but trading a 601 for a 25J certainly is exchanging one big cannon for another...

bort wrote:

GC wrote:NW Georgia to Iowa to visit Lee Stofer and his shop a few times. Lee lives in some of the nicest country I've ever seen.

Is this heaven?

No... It's Iowa.

I wouldn't call it heaven in the winter. Then again, I'm saying that to someone who lives in Maxisnowta . . .

Yeah, winter is what it is...

To clarify... I've never been to Iowa. Kevin Costner has, though.

Thanks. It's been too long since I've seen that movie. Iowa is gorgeous if you like looking at miles and miles of miles and miles. And most of it corn.

I live in a place where a half inch of snow sends people into hysterics and paralyzes everything around.

GC wrote:Thanks. It's been too long since I've seen that movie. Iowa is gorgeous if you like looking at miles and miles of miles and miles. And most of it corn.

I live in a place where a half inch of snow sends people into hysterics and paralyzes everything around.

I used to travel to Atlanta several times per year for work. I narrowly missed a small snowstorm (it happened the week before I was there). People told me nightmares of 5 hour commutes...

Yeah. My son was caught in that. His 8-mile commute took 13 1/2 hours. One poor lady who lived outside the city took 28 hours. I didn't have to set foot outside my house, fortunately, even though I have chains and could have gotten anywhere I needed to go.

I have two stories. The first was a trip on a Greyhound Bus to and from San Jose to Santa Barbara to pick up a Miraphone (it turned out I really didn't like it all that much, so I sold it soon afterwards.)
The better story was around 1982 when I flew to LA to visit a former neighbor after she moved to Reseda, CA. I had a rental car and a few hours to kill so I drove along Ventura Blvd a ways. I spotted a store that sold antique violins and such, thought it might be interesting - after a bit of discussion with the owner, he told me his father had a restored 1860s Ophicleide that he was thinking of selling. Since I had never seen an actual Ophicleide before, I was interested! So the father was called, the instrument was brought to the store. It was beautifully restored by one of the best Sax repair guys in LA, and I was able to get some interesting tones out of it. I asked how much he was asking for it - the answer was 15. I asked 15 "whats" - hundreds or thousands (I had no real idea of what one might be worth) and he said $1500. I put a deposit on it and made plans to pick it up the next week - I didn't want to take it back on the plane. So the next Saturday I drove to LA, picked up the horn and drove back to San Jose - all in one day!
I still have it, still don't really know how to play it well, but I can hack out a tune. Now that there are expert Ophicleide recording artists around, I know how hard they had to work to learn that instrument!