How long should a horn take to pay for itself?

[Wyvern]

Well, there are two ways to look at this - those who make a living from playing tuba and those who play mainly for pleasure, maybe with just the occasional paid gig.

If you play mainly for pleasure, then the tuba does not need cost justifying, any more than anything else which gives you pleasure in life. If you can afford the tuba you want - go for it!

However if you are playing for a living, then the tuba is a tool of your trade and its cost needs to be divided up over its expected useful life (10+ years) and balanced against potential income, but also remember you are likely to get a substantial amount of the investment back on selling (maybe 50%+).

Talking to a professional violinist, I heard that the best violins are so expensive that at least in the UK it may take a back row orchestral player all their working life to pay for the instrument, which they will then sell on retirement to give themselves a pension. We are very lucky that tubas are not of such a price!

[rocksanddirt]

'sinp'

Talking to a professional violinist, I heard that the best violins are so expensive that at least in the UK it may take a back row orchestral player all their working life to pay for the instrument, which they will then sell on retirement to give themselves a pension. We are very lucky that tubas are not of such a price!

yes, pro-fiddle's are very expensive axes. But a portion of that is the way they are valued that has less to do with playing and more to do with ephemera. Many (most?) fiddles do not develop their stable worked in mature sound without many many hours of playing time (like regular playing for years), so...people value old horns (90-100yr old), often way out of proportion to the sound compared to a well made 20 yr old one. That said, a student violin that a student can actually learn something other than chalkboard squeeks on is not much less than a decent BBb tuba.

[ken k]

yes be glad we do not play strings. A bass player I know just spent over $3000 on his bow!!!!!
Can you imagine a $3000 mouthpiece?
maybe solid gold???

My daughter's violin cost more than both my tubas combined. Granted I do have cheap tubas. Wouldn't get much of a pension out of them.

k

[bearphonium]

Every time I think of whining about how much a good horn costs, I remind myself that for me (hobbyist at best) a good horn with a crooked number to the left of the comma is still WAY less than a comparable bassoon or cello.

Ally" plumb pleased that she has 2 decent tubas and a decent euphonium and a new motorcycle for about the price of a mid line bassoon" House

[tubashaman2]

.

[Todd S. Malicoate]

Marty, you said you had a Schiller CC right. If you have already paid about half of it off, a couple of Easter gigs and maybe a wedding gig or whatnot, and the horn has been paid off. For a Schiller, you might just want to say it will take 2 years to pay itself off, but that is just my opinion. If it pays itself off quicker, then even better! Good luck Marty.

Those must be incredible paying gigs!

(Do they fall off trees in the northeast or something? 3 gigs? Including a "wedding gig"? Really?)

CLARIFICATION: Here in little 'ol Oklahoma...a couple of Easter gigs and a wedding gig would get you $200 (2 @ $50 and 1 @ $100). I've never played tuba at a wedding, so I'm approximating based on the $100 I get for piano services (of course, I assume you would play tuba in a quintet so it might be way less split 5 ways). $200 ain't half a tuba, even around here.

[MartyNeilan]

CLARIFICATION: Here in little 'ol Oklahoma...a couple of Easter gigs and a wedding gig would get you $200 (2 @ $50 and 1 @ $100). I've never played tuba at a wedding, so I'm approximating based on the $100 I get for piano services (of course, I assume you would play tuba in a quintet so it might be way less split 5 ways). $200 ain't half a tuba, even around here.

Looking through my financials as end of the year is approching, it seems that the limited number of (admittedly non-union) gigs I did play paid were in the $150 to $200 range, with one $125 wedding for a friend. FWIW, I have never heard of $50 gigs, maybe outside of doing a friend a favor and he gives you "gas money."
Unfortunately, I was asked just as often by high profile locals and faculty at my school to play non-paying church and other gigs as personal favors.

P.S. Selling the Schiller, including the shipping damage discount, is good for 4-5 months rent where I am currently living. It's nice not to have to sleep in the van in the winter.

[Bob Kolada]

My little King is about 27% (150 out of 550 ) paid for in the 2 gigs I have done on it. My bass trombone paid for itself in my old per-service orchestra. My old Conn stencil Eb is the real story...


I paid 400 for it, spent no money on it, made about 800 playing it (as a double to the chainsaw), and sold it for 500. Bam!!!

[MartyNeilan]

My little King is about 27% (150 out of 550 ) paid for in the 2 gigs I have done on it. My bass trombone paid for itself in my old per-service orchestra. My old Conn stencil Eb is the real story...


I paid 400 for it, spent no money on it, made about 800 playing it (as a double to the chainsaw), and sold it for 500. Bam!!!

You're not a tuba player. You're a killer!

[Bob Kolada]

Does that guy do anything else besides stereotypical military characters?

[Todd S. Malicoate]

Does that guy do anything else besides stereotypical military characters?

Rent "American Beauty" sometime.

[Tubaryan12]

Does that guy do anything else besides stereotypical military characters?

Rent "American Beauty" sometime.

and make sure you watch it 'til the end.

[bort]

Good movie!

[MartyNeilan]

Does that guy do anything else besides stereotypical military characters?

Rent "American Beauty" sometime.

Sorry. but you are thinking of Chris Cooper. R. Lee Ermey was never in that movie, but was / is the real deal. I love his programs on History Channel.

[Todd S. Malicoate]

Sorry. but you are thinking of Chris Cooper. R. Lee Ermey was never in that movie, but was / is the real deal. I love his programs on History Channel.

Oops. You're right, of course, Marty. I'm not sure now why I thought that was R. Lee Ermey.

[bort]

(Still a good movie.)

[Bob Kolada]

(Assuming Wikipedia's usual level of accuracy....) I never knew!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Lee_Ermey

[MaryAnn]

My violin did pay for itself many times over, but....if I had to buy that same violin today, whew!

I pay to play, as do many amateurs. Music became a hobby for me after I got tired of what music required as a profession; always working when other people were having fun (concerts, bar gigs, parties, etc....) and I'm a morning person, not a night person. There were times I got home when the sun was already starting to come up.

I'm much happier dealing with a computer all day, and on a regular sleep schedule; I'm not that good with people, especially drunk ones, which you have to deal with a lot in the free lance world. And with my engineering income....the vendors do a lot better financially than they would if I still had my free-lance violinist income! I think amateurs are the ones who keep most vendors in business.

MA

[deputysgttuba]

The first decent horn I bought in 1984 (Reynolds 4v BBb Contempra) paid for itself in gigs in about three years and I kept it until 1996. The Bohm & Meinl 4v CC paid for itself in about four years of gig income. Bought it in 1996 and used it until January 2009. My new PT-20P, at the lowered income level I had for gigs this year, will probably not pay for itself until 2018..But who cares, its a helluva lot cheaper than lots of other activities spread out over several years! BTW, The Bohm & Meinl will be for sale soon (Joe B., are you still interested?)
Some of you may notice a common tendency here - if you buy a horn, keep it 10-12 years and you probably will get your money back or even more, especially if you bought used at a good price!