Discounted Kellys

[Three Valves]

At least it plays the same as my crystal blue one...

Not as well as my $17 + $6 postage Glitter Gold Kelly-18!!

[Three Valves]

Additionally, the majority of band directors are unaccepting of these...

Even marching band??

[Three Valves]

If judges tended to "mark us down" for some anti-fiberglass bias...

No participation trophy??

[swillafew]

Pardon me while I hijack the thread. Kelly makes a model 50 which is "similar to a Stofer-Geib and a PT-50"

How similar is a Stofer-Geib to a PT-50?

Just asking, thanks if you can inform me.

[Three Valves]

I don't particularly like to do business with manufacturers that - not only - both retail and wholesale, but also have retail "sales" - for lower-than-wholesale pricing)

I admit, that would risk elevating my toxic masculinity to critical mass!!

[iiipopes]

"Were I to have used my teacher certificate and ended up being a high school band director (which would not have worked out, as I live in a post-1950's/post-discipline world), I would have a set of King FIBERGLASS sousaphones...great sound/great intonation/low maintenance.

That's what my school band director did, and for a couple of decades we also used them for concert band until the school system could afford separate concert tubas - also King - and sousaphones. We had to have our parents sign a form to be responsible for repairs beyond normal wear and tear. They were still going strong when I left, and I don't know just how many decades - that's right - decades, not just years, that they lasted.

[Lee Stofer]

To reply to Swillafew - the Kelly 50, formerly known as the KT 50, is pretty close to the former PT-50, not-so-close to the Stofer Geib. All three mouthpieces have a bowl-shaped interior, and all three are tuba mouthpieces. There are not drastic differences between the three, but the PT-50 and Kelly 50 do differ from the Stofer Geib.

I think Kelly has always shipped to me in boxes, but then I was not ordering one or two mouthpieces at a time.

I think that the lexan mouthpieces are underrated, as I've had nothing but positive experiences playing them myself.

[Donn]

At some point a ways back, discussion of the Geib bowl shape introduced a point that I've always wished were routinely considered there - the curve in the cup profile may not be a simple arc with one radius, and hence the bowl/funnel distinction may vary from the bottom to the top. I guess the Geib characteristic cup is more bowl at the bottom, but a little more funnel at the top - sloping sides, but a small flat bottom around the throat. Other mouthpieces that are sometimes described as "funnel" shaped might have a sloping bottom, but rather straight sides - Denis Wick 2 for example perhaps. I don't know where the PT50 is in that.

[proam]

Thanks for the heads-up; I decided to order a couple.

As I began playing the tuba, many times I went to the Kelly site planning to buy one each of their basic tuba options just to experiment with but I was always put off that crystal clear was apparently not an option for all models. At $17 each I don't care if it is glitter gold or marching maroon but at $34, why can't I just have crystal clear? I think that's the best looking of all the choices. Or maybe they do make all of them in crystal clear. I sure never did figure out how to place that order. I might be too dense or not persistent enough.

Finally, I seem to remember that they once offered a special "teachers package" that had one each of their tuba selections in crystal clear at a special, package price. That would have been nice. Or was it one each across their instrument offerings?

-- Joe