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These horns from India are all over ebay. Are any of them any good? Any recommendations?

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That is exactly what I'm thinking....but I was not for sure. I know that a lot of the Chinese horns are very good. I play a Hirsbrunner copy tuba by Jinbau that is an excellent horn and have owned two others equally good, so it made me wonder if some of the Indian horns are there yet.

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"...It's tuning is abysmal, and this instrument has almost no redeeming features...."

Fortunately, the price of scrap brass and copper is up................

Every Christmas for the past few years, Bergdorf Goodman in NYC has a window display featuring a few dozen of these Indian horns (not just tubas, but the full range). They are shiny, and as props, have a good whimsical quality to them, like many instrument-themed decorations. But I couldn't imagine anyone seriously trying to play one of them. I've tried taking a photo of this window display before, but it's just too shiny and hard to photograph.

The real question is, once India gets their instrument production up to snuff, where will be the NEXT next place to build cheap instruments?

bort wrote:.... The real question is, once India gets their instrument production up to snuff, where will be the NEXT next place to build cheap instruments?

I am confident that this won't happen in MY lifetime! I doubt if the Chinese will even be on par with the Europeans and old US manufacturers by then.

TubaTinker wrote:

bort wrote:.... The real question is, once India gets their instrument production up to snuff, where will be the NEXT next place to build cheap instruments?

I am confident that this won't happen in MY lifetime! I doubt if the Chinese will even be on par with the Europeans and old US manufacturers by then.

Oh, that's no problem - people have been swooning over their Chinese tubas etc., for years. The issue is how cheap the Chinese will work. If they start to feel like they're entitled to the same standard of living as their customers, the party is over, and the factories will be looking for a cheaper labor force, which might be India. I don't think the present Indian makers will play any role in what happens, though, they're a dead end.

Both India and China are going to be hit pretty hard on the environmental side, though, so that should keep them hungry.