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1979/80 - A new King 1241 (with cases and upright bell) $1,800 (with no assistance from anyone but myself). Before then, I played on a school-owned Amati BBb with 3 top-action valves.

1980 - A twelve-year-old 4-door Chevy II (Nova) with a 307 V8 and three-on-the-tree - $350 (same purchase circumstances as the tuba).

At the time of the tuba purchase (I was @ 17, no internet, and literally no knowledge of music performance beyond my band room) I had no clue as to what to buy. Mr. Butterfield said I should buy a King, and that's what I got, end of story...... (he also said I didn't need 4 valves, but I wisely decided against that advice).

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Side note: I played that (four-piston-valve-detachable-bell-BBb-tuba) King during my first 2 1/2 years at Manhattan School of Music (horrors!)

I knew about the 4 or 5 models listed in the Giardinello catalog at the time (1996 or 1997). I probably would have bought a MW 25, because:

* the most expensive, and therefore the nicest
* the description called the sound "sonorous". I had no idea what that meant, but it sounded like something I should want.

The irony is that I grew up about 3 miles from Baltimore Brass (the current store, or the original shop in Dave's basement). Had I known about that, things might have been quite different, and I could have easily bought something used, and gotten lessons and great advice from the big guy himself. I was probably 21 or 22 before I learned about Baltimore Brass.

If I would have known about that store in my formative years, things couuld have been way different. My band director didn't know about it, and I guess I wasn't motivated or creative enough to find out for myself.

Things worked out very well in the end, and I'll eventually be one of those people with a PhD in something non music, who spends all of his time doing tuba stuff. Not rich, not broke, and playing tuba for fun. Living the dream!

Starting on flute in '63, I progressed downwards through several instruments and wasn't on tuba until my sophomore year in HS. The school had two Besson recording basses and one brand new Mirafone 186 with the recording bell. Of course, being the rank beginner in the 'A' band, the first seat guy (two years older) wouldn't let me touch the "good horn". Little did he know that once I was on that "good horn", I was kicking butt quickly, enough to be first chair all state orchestra my senior year. (Stravinsky Symphony in Three Movements was on the program, to give you an idea of the level of play. That solo in the 3rd movement still rings in my head.)

In your scenario of turning back the clock, I would have started sooner on tuba, pressured Dad for the same BBb 186 (albeit probably in a fixed upright instead) - it was and probably still is an amazing horn. And then sought lessons or at least guidance from Mr. Bobo or Mr. Johnson, both local to me then. Had that revised history played-out, I would have likely pursued a music degree, enjoyed college a helluva lot more, and possibly have been a symphony professional at some time in my life.

[...sigh...]

Interesting question. Since turning 50 recently--and being somewhat shocked that so much time has slipped by--I spent some time thinking about decisions made at "turning points" throughout my life. I won't go all "soft-focus/wistful voice-over"--that's not the topic here and I'm sure y'all don't care. But, this question came up: "What if I'd gotten my own tuba sooner in life...?" Anyway, here's my story.

If it were possible to have gotten my own tuba the first time that I felt like I really wanted to stick with it, it'd probably have been a MW 25 BBb--just like the two that my band director (a fine trombone player and excellent music educator, whom I am grateful for meeting to this day--Bob Spiegelhalter) selected for the band. In hindsight, I think that would have been a wise choice; at the time, I just would have been trusting Mr Spiegelhalter's judgement.

However, not long after that time I joined T.U.B.A--as it was called then--and got regular copies of the journal containing all those beautiful ads for various manufacturer's horns. The most appealing to me at the time were the Hirsbrunner adds. Other boys had posters of Farrah Fawcett, Camaros, Mustangs, and the occasional Pink Floyd black-light poster. Me...I coveted those beautiful silver beauties with all that curvaceous tubing. I was convinced that if I was going to make a living playing tuba that I NEEDED an entire quiver of those things to make it. In hindsight (pun intended) that was flat-out childish and delusional. It only took a few lessons from Art Hicks--who at the time was playing an ancient Sander CC in the LO--to disabuse me of that notion. No horn ever played itself; attention to detail and careful, structured practice were the keys to success, but you still had to know which doors to try to open with them.

This brings me to my first horn that I purchased--with the help of two influential teachers. It wasn't until my sophomore year at TTU that I was able to purchase my own tuba--one about as far from my childhood crush as any could be, but was definitely the right horn at the time. Mr Morris managed to talk a previous student, who after 10 or so years as a lawyer was almost ready to sell his horn, to part with an early '70s Miraphone 185. The price was more than reasonable, but still more than I'd saved at the time. My uncle--a music minister in Atlanta at the time and who was a pivotal influence on me and a guide who helped me gain the confidence that there were MANY ways to commit to music in my life--heard somehow that I was just a bit short of the funds needed for the purchase. He (and my aunt) generously made up the difference and I was able to purchase the horn on which I played through school and into my first (and last...but, that's another story) professional job.

So after proof-reading, I seem to have diverted somewhat from the thread already; the question was about tubas and my post seems to be more about mentors. But again in hindsight, due mostly to my financial condition (broke) I relied on the guidance of several generous and patient mentors to get me to the point that I could make more mature, well-informed equipment decisions later. I guess my path to what I currently play and where I play it isn't uncommon: many (what I assume to be young...maybe not?) players obsess over equipment. It's also common for students to overestimate the influence of equipment on their abilities. I can say that since that 185 (and probably before that...) my abilities have never been equipment-limited. But, since then I've only bought good (at least good for me...) equipment and spent enough time (...ok, maybe not quite enough...) to learn how to make the musical sounds that I hear in my head come out the bell. I still get tuba-lust, but not because I can't do what I want with what I have--more like I'd enjoy adding another color to my pallet. In reality, it probably wouldn't be noticed by anyone but me and the personal enjoyment that I'd get out of it now doesn't equal the $$$ that is needed to send two young adults through undergraduate programs. Maybe later...

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read this. I look forward to hearing from others.

Best,
Bill

Bought a new Mirafone 185-5U CC in 9th grade....newspaper routes were great. $945 for the tuba.

1967 - With my own money I bought a new Conn 88h trombone and a 1961 Mercedes 190D with 100,000 miles on it. I drove the Mercedes five years and another 100,000 miles. I still have and play the 88h, so it was the better investment. A 1967 Conn 10j tuba joined it later.

Back when I was in high school, the only nice tuba brand I was aware of was Hirsbrunner. So that's what I would've begged n' pleaded for.

Ten years after that, I knew it wouldn't have made much difference, and was happy that I didn't blow the cash on it.

Back in 1978, still at school, I visited the Frankfurt Musikmesse for the first time. It made some impact: I found a new trombone (which I was looking for), a Bach 50 B3LG. And just for fun I tested a tuba for the first time, a Boosey&Hawkes Sovereign Eb. And I collected some catalogues, including the last Courtois catalogue with the French C Tuba...
40 years later: The bass bone is long gone due to bad ergonomics and serious build quality problems, replaced by a Courtois I still play occasionally. For 25 years I have my Besson 982 Eb and after a lot of research and hunting I found my Courtois French C, now on the way to repair of corrosion leaks and retirement, while I play the Wessex.
And I still have my first new-bought bicycle from 1972...

I'm still relatively young, but something I do regret not accepting is that in 2006 when I was a senior in high school our band program received a fairly large endowment, that was used to replace old instruments and our band director offered to let us have our old horn rather than resigning them to district storage(read graveyard). I didn't take him up on the offer, the only person who did was one of the flute players that we press ganged into low brass.

Sadly press ganging was the only way for my school to get Tuba players. I was in the programs for six years at that school, and there was not a single tuba player who started their band career on tuba.

Started playing tuba in 5th grade in elementary and we had a mix of Conn 10J's, 12J's, 4J's, and 5J's all through middle school. The sousas we played on were old Conn 36K's and 22K's so Conn was literally all I knew. In 7th grade I bought my first tuba, a satin silver Conn 20J. I thought it was a professional tuba since it was a 6/4! Had the bell converted to an upright and used that tuba all through middle and high school at home. I auditioned for Texas 5A all state band with it in 06 and got 3rd chair! Even played the pedals in the tryouts with false fingerings and got comments from the other tubists in the room about how great my 20J sounded. If I could go back in time I think my first horn would have been the 26J I have now. 4 front valves, blends in better with sections. I had the only top action horn out of most of the sections I played with. Although that doesn't matter to me. Always liked sticking out like a sore thumb

So I went through French Horn, Baritone and drums then dropped out of band in 7th grade. Regretted it soon after. Went to our teacher and basically it was " I need a tuba player. Take it or leave it". So I started out on Yamaha 201's in grade school. High school had beat to $%&^ Mirafone 186 BB's. Loved the Mirafones but I always wanted one of the Conn 2xj's. If I would have saved my pennies for anything it would have been a Conn 20J. I loved the sound of them then and still do. First car was a 76 AMC Pacer. You ever try to get a date when you're a tuba player that drives a fishbowl? At least It had a hatchback to load the tuba in.

Brother! I thought that I was the only tuba player to own a Pacer. Mine was denim blue but the gel coat was falling off—it looked like it had a skin disease. My insurance agent gave me a box of band-aids—said I’d need them if I ever got into an accident, since the thing was about half glass.

I remember AMC- my parents had a '69 Rebel. As long as you maintained them, those were "the cars that would not die". Your neighbor's Gremlin obviously needed work, and we all know why it didn't get fixed, eh?

I had a neighbor who would get up and mow his lawn every Saturday at 6 AM. He had me service his mower for a while- "oh, you need a new muffler" and I put on the quietest one I could get. After that I could sleep in.

The Sonora was the first tuba I owned- we got it my senior year of high school, brand new.

My Grandmother had a Rambler American (pre AMC) but despite that, my parents still got an AMC Pacer X. (At least it was the “nice” one)

I remember our first home was a three bedroom row house with no AC.

They didn’t wait to have kids until they could afford us.

I had the tuba I needed at the time, a Yamaha YEB-321. I was very pleased to have 4 valves to work with after the school's ancient E-flat proved to me 3 valves on an E-flat tuba aren't quite enough. I bought it with a bit of parental help and it has served as my main do-anything tuba for a long time. As for cars, I couldn't afford any then (1999), and can barely keep one now, but all my cars have to have "tuba room".

I started on Tuba on a fiberglass Conn Sousa, because I was the biggest kid to try out (farm kid) and I didn't know what I wanted to play. It was a plus that my parents didn't have to purchase an instrument. In Jr. High and High School I think I played a BBb Cousenon (there are several of them for sale on craigslist around here yet). There was a Reynolds available but that went to the Senior and the cute girl who took up tuba. In college I started on a Yamaha 321 at State College, then a variety of second hand horns at the UofM (I remember a 3-valve compensating Besson that I liked). Wasn't a music major, instead an Agriculture major, but took lessons from the Tuba player at the MN Orchestra. He pushed St Petersburg horns. Then I played a variety of community band horns.

My first real tuba purchase was a Besson BBb. I drove to Milwaukee on my 40th birthday to pick it up. I've been picking up a variety of weird stuff over the last few years, a Eb Ditson Helicon and Eb West German Stencil and now the Conn 12J. Still looking for the perfect horn (or the best my wife will approve of). Almost retired after 32 years in criminal justice and considering apprenticing in a instrument repair shop. Instruments don't require cognitive behavior therapy, but still occasionally use of force. Still playing community gigs.

I never realized the disadvantage of being from a small town, with only the high school band as your guide. A good tuba would have made a world of difference. It is beyond calculating at this point so I don't think about it, except for now.

The summer before my Sr year in HS I bought a 10 yr old 1965 Plymouth Barracuda fastback,273 V8, bright red. Rusty here and there, but a fun car, and that huge rear window with fold down back seat made for some special 'star gazing' episodes, for sure.
I didn't think that the tuba itself mattered all that much back then, and always played whatever the school had, which were actually fine band horns - a herd of Conn 20j's, and one shiny new Besson 4 valve BBb that was kept only for first chair, and I enjoyed playing them all. Went to a small college near Chicago, and they had a rack of old, beat up, Couesnon BBb 3 valvers. I played those for a bit, then bought my first tuba, a used Yamaha YBB-321 for $800. It worked fine for me for about 20 years until I came upon the Holton I have now. In retrospect I was pretty stupid and/or naïve in those college years, did not take advantage of all that Chicago had to offer. One of my tuba teachers was in the Lyric Opera Orchestra, and gave me the name and number of a pro tubist who was selling a 4 valve rotor CC tuba for $1000 right in Chicago, and he recommended that I go play it and make him an offer. I called the man, and he was very kind, offered to let me borrow it for a while to see how I liked the horn and the CC fingerings, and offered to reduce the price and let me pay whatever I could by the month from my security guard job. In one of my many stupid moments of those years, I declined. He even called me back later to see if I had changed my mind. I wish I had taken him up on his generosity. I think it would have been a game-changer for me; not because of the instrument, really, but because I would have had a different mindset, a better mental focus, probably some maturity.
I also wish I still had that Barracuda!

I was playing a school owned King 4-valve in HS and a Besson 3-valve-comp in college.

If I coulda, I woulda like to have owned the Hirsbrunner BBb, can't remember the model. But I remember the T.U.B.A journals and would spend a stupid amount of time pouring over the advertising for all of the makes/models. The HBs were just beautiful to me......usually the back-cover was devoted to new HBs......so lovely,......and I never met anyone that owned one, so it had even greater mystique.

I drove a rust-bucket 1973 Toyota Corona, that my dad eventually just gave to me when I graduated from college. I had kept it running, well past 100K miles, rebuilt the motor when the timing chain took a dump, and pop-riveted diamond plate into the floorboards when they rusted through. It had a Panasonic multi-component stereo system that I installed after some significant dash reconstruction and some custom made speaker enclosures. Fun car.....I wish I had it now. But I really wanted a Hemi 'Cuda.

Dream-on white boy!

I'm now quite grateful to have had the opportunity to start-out on both the tuba and auto platforms that I did. I learned alot and the only thing that held me back was and still is me. I've considered picking up a Besson 3-valve-comp quite a few times in the past 20-years. They weren't very sexy, but they are damn sure good players.

I'll bite, I like this topic. First vehicle was a 1990 Suburban my parents gave me when they moved on to something newer and better. Still have that truck, and I'll die with that truck. First car I bought with my own money was a '97 Camry, and it was a piece of junk. My $600 Saturn has been a far better car and I've now owned it twice as long as the Camry. I also have an '82 Oldsmobile with the dreaded 5.7 diesel waiting for me to finish hooking the motor back up. That was a great car when it was running, and got significantly better mileage than my truck does (8mpg is not the best )

My first tuba was a King 1241, a parent assisted purchase. I loved that horn, and to this day I regret selling it (did keep the upright bell though). My first horn that was all my money was an early Holton Eb that leaked like crazy and was basically beat to death, but that started my foray into the world of Eb, and now I have some half dozen Eb's in various states of functionality. My main horn, however, is a Besson 995 CC that my teacher left me in his will, and that, too, I plan on owning until the day I die. I don't think I'd change anything about my first tuba purchase (mine or the one my parents bought). I learned a great deal about myself as a musician from both horns, and learned that equipment really doesn't matter (to an extent) if you're willing to put in the work.

I thought I'd be a professional tuba player when I started college and have ended up only playing for fun (though regularly employed), and I think it's worked out much better in the long run. So to make a short story very long: I'd change nothing about my first tuba or car.