Marzan

[Toobist]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/fred-marzan-4-v ... SwT5tWQSr2

[bort]

SSSshhhhh!!! Don't bid this up for Dan!

Could be a decent tuba in the end. I used to own a detachable bell CC Marzan, it played very well. It was a bit top-heavy, but it played very well.

[Dan Schultz]

SSSshhhhh!!! Don't bid this up for Dan!

Could be a decent tuba in the end. I used to own a detachable bell CC Marzan, it played very well. It was a bit top-heavy, but it played very well.

I'll be bidding but I won't go up to a 'stupid' price. Maybe the person who buys it will pay me to fix it!

[bort]

Maybe the person who buys it will pay me to fix it!

Who could do it better?!

PS -- this is a BBb, right?

[Dan Schultz]

Maybe the person who buys it will pay me to fix it!

Who could do it better?!

PS -- this is a BBb, right?

Yes... it is a BBb.

[bort]

Errbody wants something for nothing...

[bort]

^not a $2,000 horn.

All told, if you walk away with thus horn, and have it back in good shape by Dan or someone else and have spent less than $3,500 all told, you are in good shape. More than that and you might still come out on top. This is a LOT of horn for the money.

[bort]

I think you are vastly overrating the market for these tubas.

And I think you're underrating. Average of $2750?

(Value is irrelevant -- point is, you could easily spend $3000 and get a tuba that's not as good).

[bort]

I agree on the surface, but this tuba doesn't look all that bad.

Worst case, trash the bell and get a YM reproduction from Kanstul, which will fit this. Not cheap, but you save on the bell repair costs at least.

Again, this is a lot of tuba for the money. You don't have to buy it or agree with me... but I think Marzans in general are undervalued.

[bort]

Fair enough! Let's just agree to be curious about where the final price will end up.

I think you have to go through a dealer for Kanstul stuff. Used to be something easy to get from Lee Stofer. Maybe it still is...?

[Tabor]

if the bell is truly beyond it, you could probably use the tenons and retrofit it with a bell from a York monster Eb/33BBb, Grand Rapids, Holton standard, King monster Eb, new style king 2341, king 2341 eastman copy, the other Chinese copy, Getzen 50, or old Conn monster bell. I think they would all be within workable size range. I am sure there are others I am missing.

[Donn]

for $3000 I would hope buy a tuba that didn't have the look of being launched from a Trebuchet at some point in its life. Even is fixed, that's still there. True, a master tech might be able to make it look like that's never happened, but known abuse matters to me.

Does that have some bearing on the Marzan mystique? I mean, ooh, a Marzan, they are underrated you know ... but after all the torching and hammering and soldering and so forth - bell, large bows, valve slide tubing, and then who knows what work the valves will need - isn't it kind of a fresh start to some extent? Like getting a Chinese Marzan copy, for example? would that automatically also be a lot of tuba for $3000?

The abused tubas that do get this kind of love are the truly distinctive ones, it seems to me. Like, say, a Conn 36J or Holton 345 - the end result is not predicated so much exactly on a belief in the superiority of Conn tubas of that era, it's more like how can you go wrong with a big honker like that. (Pardon me, Holton 345 enthusiasts, but ...) What does a Marzan bring to the table, that would be sure to come through after a general rebuild?

[bort]

Marzan tubas have just never been popular. If they were truly popular, they would still be made. Not sure why the piston horns didn't catch on, but the rotary horns were funny looking and probably had a tough time competing against Miraphones during that time period. Maybe just marketing more than anything.

The Marzan BBb's are regarded as better than the CC's (I think because the BBb was the real design, and the CC was a cut down version of the BBb and had some quirkier intonation).

Frankly, I'm glad people don't like them. They're high-quality German-made tubas, and they sound great. The more people that don't like them, the lower the prices stay.

[bort]

As a rotary fan that has had carpel tunnel problems due to hand position, a slant rotor BBb would be a dream come true for me right now

Well keep your eyes peeled, they do exist!

[bort]

I'll stick my neck out. I've owned a large number of tubas of three different keys. B&S, MW, Miraphone, Kanstul, Conn, King, other Marzans (CC), on and on. The piston Marzan BBb (Boehm & Meinl) that I currently own pleases me more than any other tuba. I've stopped looking for anything better. It is a rehabilitated horn that I bought from by Dan (Tuba Tinker). I'd pay premium prices for one of these overlooked sleepers of the tuba world. Nuff said.

Great looking tuba!

I sure wouldn't mind trying another Marzan, mine was a bit of an oddball in a few ways. Something in CC, with a one-piece bell, and a normal-angle valve block would be a good thing to try. I recently heard from someone well-known on the board here who just picked up a Marzan and is extremely happy with it (and in my opinion, that means a lot).

[bort]

I should really try out a BBb then...!

(But I still wouldn't mind trying out another CC. )

[windshieldbug]

I owned your previous detachable bell Marzan CC for about one year. I've also trialed a CC slant rotor Marzan and it exhibited the same significant intonation quirks. IMO a CC Marzan is an inferior distant cousin of a BBb Marzan.

I go for sound, and once I picked up my slant-rotor CC in 1977 I've never looked back.

For orchestral playing one uses "just-intonation" so there is no such thing as set-it-and-forget-it. The overtone series itself is out of tune, and the equal temprement they tune pianos to only makes everything equally out of tune. I like only using one slide to adjust instead of 6. Using your ears to make music... what a concept!

[Tubajug]

I'll stick my neck out. I've owned a large number of tubas of three different keys. B&S, MW, Miraphone, Kanstul, Conn, King, other Marzans (CC), on and on. The piston Marzan BBb (Boehm & Meinl) that I currently own pleases me more than any other tuba. I've stopped looking for anything better. It is a rehabilitated horn that I bought from by Dan (Tuba Tinker). I'd pay premium prices for one of these overlooked sleepers of the tuba world. Nuff said.

I played that horn at Dan's place a couple of years ago and it was, by far, my favorite horn of all of his that he let me try out. If I had the money at the time, I probably would have bought that from him before you could! It was a fantastic horn!

[proam]

So, how does the Marzan stack up against a Conn 5J in similar condition? They are similarly configured horns.

Thought about bidding but then noticed what appears to be a missing spit valve. That means it would need work before you could even try it.

[Tubajug]

So, how does the Marzan stack up against a Conn 5J in similar condition? They are similarly configured horns.

Thought about bidding but then noticed what appears to be a missing spit valve. That means it would need work before you could even try it.

Marzan is a bigger bore, 0.750" if I remember correctly. Just a bigger horn all around.