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Price seems WAY too high. I would never pay more than $500 for an Eb tuba, sousaphone, or helicon with 3 valves.

Bob Bigalard wrote:I would never pay more than $500 for an Eb tuba, sousaphone, or helicon.

OK, so I infer from this that you aren't so much an Eb player, and might also guess that you don't have a compelling interest in historic instruments. And odds are, you aren't in KC. I don't know if it's worth $2K to anyone, but ... some people would probably undervalue my '73 Volvo.

Sorry for taking so long to post here...

I was passing through Kansas City round about rush hour mid Aprilish, and dropped in on them unannounced to ask about it.

They let me try it out, and my impressions are that it has a really solid sound, better volume and a comprable tone and intonation to my only other Eb helicon experience at the time, being a Boosey & Co. Of course a caveat being that it was a new place to play, so it is perhaps unreliable to compare. But i certainly enjoyed the opportunity to play it, and this tuba would not embarrass me in public.

Fitting the tuba stereotype of being overweight, it is tighter on me than i am used to, so i probably would have to be creative with bits before i would play this regularly.

They told me it was missing a valve when they got it, so it was a challeenge to see if they could build a replacement. It sounded fine on that note.

As price goes, my impression is that Boston instruments are very well considered, and quite rare. So i don't realistically expect them to lower their asking price, especially if it is offsetting what they have already put into it. On the other hand, yeah, i'm sure if you look, passable 3 valve Eb are cheap as tubas go, so if another one will do it for ya, knock yourself out. Another tubenetter recently got a promising project for $40. My low water mark is $50 for an ol' Conn Eb.