Intresting instrument stories

tubatom91 · Post by **tubatom91** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 9:58 pm

I guess I am wondering if anyone has any unique or off the wall stories about how they got their instruments. I got my Mirafone 1270 3 valver for free from my orthodintist(long story involveing harvey phillips). I aqquired one trombone from my grandfather. He was passing through a car museum and noticed a shiny new Getzen tenor trombone sitting there and promptly bought it. My other trombone is assumed to be a conn (made in elkhart IN) the brand name engraved into the bell reads "BRIGADIER,ELKHART INDIANA,USA" with a large marching band member in uniform. I also have a Banjo (nothing big but the story is good). I am a left handed guitarist/bassist so I wanted a left handed banjo to add to the collection. On a antique car meet they went to some blugrass festival and found a guy selling banjo's and guitars out of a tent on the fairgrounds. My grandpa asked the owner if he'd ever seen a left handed banjo all he said was "turn around" and there she was just hangin' there and he bought which was a shock to me. I also have a cello not a very good cello. Well I went to school one morning and saw it laying on the floor broken in half and the BD gave it to me. We glued it back together and now it has bass strings on it. Hmmm I think thats about it the rest of my instruments I bought myself new. If any of you are fomr the chicago area you will know this. Garfield goose a popular TV puppet show involving a mute duck clapping its bill to speak was created by the Newtons that live(d) in Aurora. They recently had an estate sale and I found the brigadier trombone in their home and purchased it for $35.50 its an all siver instrument that I havent worked all the kinks out of.

tubatom91 · Post by **tubatom91** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 9:58 pm

sorry for such a dragged out post

tubatooter1940 · Post by **tubatooter1940** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 10:16 pm

I liked your post, tubatom91.
After my Getzen valve bone burned up in a barroom fire, a local music store got in 60 used slide bones. Of course, I had to play/test all 60 of them to be sure I got the finest one. That poor store owner was about out of his tree over that. I bought a King tenor bone for $120.

A year later, our drummer jumped off the drum kit riser and landed on the King's slide with both feet.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) my son's gay band director tried to hit on him and he quit the band and gave me his almost new Conn slide bone which I enjoy to this day.

tubatom91 · Post by **tubatom91** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 10:19 pm

today was the first time I had ever played a bone with an F attachment ( I made the swap from t-bone to tuba in 6th grade now I'm a sophmore) I have never gotten the chance to play a bass bone or valved bone.

tubatooter1940 · Post by **tubatooter1940** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 10:23 pm

Gotta try a tuba!
How low can you go?

tubatom91 · Post by **tubatom91** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 10:55 pm

I've been playing tuba for 4 1/2 years now I can do pedal Bb

Erin · Post by **Erin** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 10:57 pm

When I was 14 my parents came home with an old E-flat B&H Imperial tuba. They had been visiting with friends and while they were there their friend's neighbours came over. My parents mentioned I play tuba, and they said "Oh! I think we have a tuba in our basement! You can have it if you like!" So my parents brought it home to me. (They were also offered bagpipes, but politely declined.) It was in terrible shape, but we had a bunch of work done on it, I taught myself to play E-flat tuba, and I played that horn at school for several years. I named it Earl.

I sold that horn on TubeNet about a year ago.

The first time my teacher heard me play that horn was a very.... memorable experience for both of us. In fact, he often shares that story in clinics and masterclasses... and every other chance he gets. (And if he has any decency at all

he will not tell that story here.)

tubatom91 · Post by **tubatom91** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 10:58 pm

it's hard for me to sell anything of value like an instrument I doubt I will ever sell any of mine

Levaix · Post by **Levaix** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 11:52 pm

I went on a quest for my euphonium last January. I was a senior in high school, and I took a long trip from Chicagoland to Penn State, to audition for Velvet Brown. Then I went even further and went to the Tuba conference in Washington D.C. I tried out every single horn in that room, and one just stuck out to me with its resonance. So I go up to the guy in the Custom Music booth and ask him which model it is, to which he promptly replied the B&S PT-37. So I go,
"Okay, how much?"
"5500 dollars, but I'll take off 500 if you buy it or reserve it right now."
There was no way I had that money, so I reserved it, and I had to buy it within 3 months for that price. I went ahead and called up about 3 months later, and they didn't have it yet. They also told me that the one I tried wasn't the PT-37, it was the PT-36! I found out the only difference was that the PT-37 had a trigger on the main tuning slide, so I just kept that one reserved. I called again in May, when it was supposed to be in. It wasn't. The same happened in June, the end of June, and mid-July. By this time, the list price was about $6700, but I still had it reserved for $5000. They finally called up at the end of July. It was in. A few days later, two big boxes showed up on my front porch. I opened the first one, and there it was, shining with gold trimmed valves. Long story short, my private teacher liked it, Micky Moore likes it, and most importantly, I like it.

tubatom91 · Post by **tubatom91** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 9:31 am

that's the way to find them. I am just a sophmore in high school,so I already have this many intruments. i dont know how many I'll have later on. The only thing I want to add to the collection is a mirafone 186 or 187 but I don't know when I can do that maybe I will come across one someday.

MaryAnn · Post by **MaryAnn** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 10:44 am

This isn't really my story, but:
A tuba player here in town found a really nice (I played it, yes it is really nice) 3+1 BBb compensating tuba being sold by the military base. Only thing was, he had to buy the entire lot of instruments to get this one, for a few thousand (wasn't all that much; maybe $3500?) So he did. And he sold the rest of them and it paid for the tuba for him. And it is a really, really, nice, very playable, wonderful low end BBb tuba. No, I don't remember the brand, but possibly/probably it was a Besson. We had a discussion here on Tubenet back when that happened, with people saying there was no such thing, but there is.
MA

eli · Post by **eli** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 1:59 pm

John wrote: So I say "You're right. I'm not buying one, I'm buying THREE."

So she unleashes her ultimate threat: "I'm telling Mom!"

My wife, who realized years ago that keeping me out of trouble was a hopeless task, isn't upset, much to my daughter's dismay.

tubatom91 · Post by **tubatom91** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 4:29 pm

I'd love to have a bass bone laying around just because I pretty much lost all of my high chops for trombone I cant even get above a Bb(1st above staff)

tubafatness · Post by **tubafatness** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 8:18 pm

I have a Coon 4J BBb tuba that was given to me by a retired neurosurgeon. I was taking bass trombone lessons from him, as he was a good amateur bass trombonist. He was actually a good friend of Ed Kleinhammer's and he had met and talked to Arnold Jacobs. As he put it, he the only person not to get a lesson from him! He talked about how he had helped Jacobs out on a couple of his concepts, mainly ones to deal with the human body. He had me follow him out to his storage space, where he had about 5 full file cabinets of music and, in the corner, a tuba in its case, which he gave to me. He died shortly after, so it is not likely I'll ever get rid of that horn. I use it from time to time, like the little three piece combo I played in on the Senior Homecoming Float this year. Good for when I don't want to use my nice Rudy Meinl CC for a gig.