Conn 5J-ish- BIN $1350

[Bob Kolada]

Not a bad price!

http://cgi.ebay.com/TUBA-CONN-4-VALVE-F ... 5ad6a837fe

[Ken Herrick]

With the extensive dent work this has had - like it has REALLY been beat up - I would want somebody to check it out as there is a good chance the valves will not be too good. Note that the bell has not even been squared up with the bottom bow.

[tbn.al]

Even with a valve job and blokerizing the tuning you would still be under 2 grand. If it wound up playing as good as mine it would be worth it. This is the ideal small BBb old man's tuba IMHO.

[MartyNeilan]

This is the ideal small BBb old man's tuba IMHO.

True, but having been tortured by one of these next to me far too many times to recall, this is NOT the kind of tuba if your idea of tuba playing is "blowing the snot out of it," partially due to the .658 bore and small tapers ending up in a disproportionate bell flare. This horn will NOT work well with a heavy handed approach, and has a definite limit on the amount of good sound it can put out.

[Ken Herrick]

Marty, you are absolutely right when you say it won't work with a heavy handed approach. BUT if you know how to play that genre of instrument, as did Harvey, you can produce enough clear, focused sound to lay down a foundation for ANY ensemble where QUALITY is paramount.

I'm gonna have a "rant" here. I listened to several youtube clips today and more often than not turned them off because I simply could not stand hearing people with monsters making fools of themselves by trying to blow the absolute shitter out of some 6/4 instrument they simply could not handle.

It all comes down to being able to use some FINESSE - that only comes from good practice - a lot of damned hard work and hopefully good instruction.

Yes, the 5J, 2,j, 3J, etc would be good "old man's horns!!!!! They are also something with which somebody who does the work will not need some 20 grand F as a "solo" horn, It is possible to cover the lot - at least what is written by anybody with a true understanding of "TUBA": Why the hell do you need an F to play an A below middle C and sound crappy all the way through something???????????

IF that particular instrument were any good - though I suspect it is a beater - it would be a good instrument for somebody to learn how to make some decent music come out of the top end.

I'm NOT having a shot at you, Marty, I just get a bit pissed off when I keep seeing and hearing that you have to be big and loud - like so many mistakenly think is the definition of Jake's playing, when what they should be doing is learning how to play pppp and make every note ring. Jake spent a lot of time doing that. When I was staying at Harvey's home the first thing you would hear, very early in the morning, would be crystal pure sounds at pppppppppppp which were full of music.

Music - here we are talking tuba playing - working with horses, dogs, other people, competition pool or snooker, or so many other things, all come down to a lot of hard work and being able to do it well - with finesse. It is no good shaking the walls if you can't make the listener concentrate to hear the almost inaudible.

It's past 1:30 AM an I'm gonna go curl up with my little dog.

Ken
(Who finally decided it was time to go home and lost a game of pool)

Night - all.

[MartyNeilan]

I agree with everything you posted, Ken.

I guess, I just see these horns as small ensemble horns, and when they are misused by poor playing techniques in big ensembles, the results are less than stellar.
In the right hands, any horn can sound good. For the same dough, however, it is much easier to lay down a foundation with a 20J than with a 5J.
I have personally heard way too many bad sounds coming out of these specific model horns, that would not have sounded near as bad had the overaggressive player used a more appropriate sized horn.
Keep in mind that the person who buys this horn for a high school band, community band, or other local group will not be concerned with making every note ring at a crystal clear ppp, but will be trying to be the bass of an ensemble. We get so caught up in our little bubble that we forget about the 95% of people out there who can barely spell tuba. Figure, that in the real world most amateur tuba players are only going to play within a two octave range (if they are lucky) and will never get to, or want to, explore anything above an F in the staff. Many can't play a C in the staff or higher in tune, nor do they desire to. The music they will play goes down to a low E at the lowest, which will always be played by three valves and then blown sharper, even on a four valve instrument. It is for that person, who has to overwork to keep up with a large ensemble, that such an instrument listed would not be an ideal choice.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) people can no longer say, "well, you only sound good because you have that big expensive silver tuba."

[Bigmanontuba]

As a Quintet Musician more than a large ensemble man, one of these little horns would be perfect. I played one of the little bad boys for my Senoir Rectial, and I have to say, I had fallen in love with those little horns, that is for small ensemble and solo work. BUT, with the right individual that know how to control his sound, and knows where his limits lie on any horn he/she might play, can make this thing fit in a larger ensemble

(Kicks horse in dead, realizing that is has LONG passed away)