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On MusicGoRound.com, they have a used Marzen 5v CC tuba for $3,999, a used H&B Stonelined tuba mute for $14.99,a used Hercules tuba stand for $14.99, plus other stuff....FYI for anyone looking.....
Mark

That's a very clean conversion on the Marzan linkages. All of these horns originally had string-operated rotors. Probably well maintained. This certainly was owned by someone who took care of it and did not come out of a school environment.

I happened to be in the neighborhood and gave it a toot! Some disorganized thoughts:

Holy smokes the low register is awesome. I cannot stress this enough. Super loud, responsive, and resonant all the way down to pedal notes.

The bell looks to have never been bent!

The rotors were fast but quite noisy.

Compression was good but when I took the caps off, they appeared to be in backwards!?

Alignment was off, especially first valve, but a bit of detail work would fix that quickly.

Intonation was a bit wonky. The g's were flat relative to the C's, and with the first valve down things got weirder. However, proper valve allignment might (?) fix some of that.

Cool horn, seems like a fair price.

daktx2 wrote:.....The rotors were fast but quite noisy.

Compression was good but when I took the caps off, they appeared to be in backwards!?

Alignment was off, especially first valve, but a bit of detail work would fix that quickly.

Intonation was a bit wonky. The g's were flat relative to the C's, and with the first valve down things got weirder. However, proper valve allignment might (?) fix some of that.

Cool horn, seems like a fair price.

Hmmm... My initial comment about the aftermarket linkages may have been premature. Changing from string linkage is a bit involved inasmuch as you cannot simply use the original string screw hole and put in a ball connector. The rotors will turn the wrong direction if you do that. The stop arms have to be modified by adding a tab to them to mount the ball.

Go about 1/2 way down this page to have a look at such a conversion... http://thevillagetinker.com/Marzan%20Horns.htm

It looks like they got tired of waiting and put in on Ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Marzan-5-Rotor- ... Sw44BYMe01

OK. I can answer some of the mystery surrounding this horn. I just got a call from the most recent buyer. This horn was here in January of 2014. I did not recognize it from the Music-go-Round or Ebay listings because the linkage had been changed. When I bought it... someone had butchered the original string linkage and made an attempt to put on spherical linkage. The horn is pictured at the top of my 'Marzan Page'. I restored the string linkage and sold it in February 2014. Apparently either the new owner (or another generation of ownership) decided to get rid of the string linkage (again!). Two and half years had passed since I sold it so it's hard telling.

All I know is that when the horn left here in February of 2014 it was in great condition and had string linkage on rotors 1 thru 4.