TubeNet

Hi everyone,

I am after a light weight and reasonably priced Tuba for a 7 year old.

My daughter has wanted to play tuba since she was 4. She has weekly lessons and is just now getting to the point where she is borrowing her teachers tuba during her lesson.
She has played cornet and tenor horn up until recently, but is set on tuba. So if we are going to get an instrument, I feel it may as well be a tuba.

As such we are on the lookout for a light weight tuba.
We have tried to contact Tiger/Rheinsound Music, but have had no response. They advertise them on there website for $510 USD including shipping, which seems reasonable. Here in Australia however, they are closer to $1500 AUD w/out shipping...

If anyone knows how to contact Rheinsound, or has a Tiger, Cool Wind, etc. tuba they are looking to sell to someone who is just starting out, please let me know!

She has saved up some money, and we are happy to help out as much as possible, but most options we have found are well above what we could afford.


Thanks in advance!

Buying a Tiger might not be a very economical proposition. Air freight, customs agents fees, and GST would almost certainly run to well over $1000. That is on top of the fact that $510 US would be more like Aus $700. So, all up you would be looking at closer to $2000 for a not really great tuba.

Try Gumtree as there are sure to be some good smaller tubas available. Patience might save a lot of $$$!!!

If you like, contact me by perspnal message or email and I might be able to come up with something good at a quite reasonable price.

Where are you located?

Hi Ken,

You are probably right about the Tiger option...
I’ve sent you a PM.

Thanks!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cool-Winds-CTU ... %7Ciid%3A1" target="_blank

Thanks Bisontuba,

I don’t think they ship to Australia, but have sent them a message...

Bit of an update for anyone interested:

So, thanks to some guidance here as well as from my daughters music teachers, Andrew, we have moved on to searching for a brass instrument. Not a plastic one.

Ken Herric (from this forum) has been a great help and has got me up to speed on the basics of what to look for, and also helped me look into a few options.

Then, last Friday Andrew was able to get an old 3 valve Besson Westminster on trial from Legato, in Reservoir, Victoria.
It’s has a few dents but it’s a good size, slides are smooth, valve section seems in order... So, the plan is to hang onto it for a while, see how she settles into it, then if all goes well she will have brought her first tuba!

Hopefully all that’s left now is to work out a solution for the mouthpiece (The one she has been practicing with is a different taper and the one it came with has been a bit more difficult for her to play.) Then we will work out a stand and be set for now.


Thanks again to everyone who has stopped by to offer advise, it is very much appreciated.

It is great to see this result. She looks so happy with that little Besson which seems the ideal horn for her now.

Now to sort out the mouthpiece situation.. I'm looking into a couple possibilities.

The support and encouragement of the parents and teacher are obviously important factors in this success story - great to see!