Holton Harvey Phillips BB flat tuba - Ebay

[Rev Rob]

I was cruising Ebay to see what was available and I came across this Holton Harvey Phillips double b flat tuba for sale with no reserve. So far it has 20 bids on it or so. The photos show an immaculately maintained horn. So far the bids are up to $1,526. This is an outstanding price for a tuba of this caliber. This appears to be quite the deal! Or is this too good to be true? I admire the seller putting the tuba up for sale with no reserve. He would make Adam Smith proud.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Holton-Harvey-Phill ... 2559a3cc1e" target="_blank" target="_blank

[Bob Kolada]

This is an outstanding price for a tuba of this caliber. This appears to be quite the deal!

Going off the less than great reviews of this horn, I would question the "caliber" part (though I have not played one!)....

[Dan Schultz]

I know of one guy who likes the Holton TU-330/331 tubas!

http://www.norlanbewley.com/holton331.htm

[Rev Rob]

I do not have your emperical experience of other tubas. I only know that when I was in high school I played a Holton very much like this one - only a 3 valve tuba. My attachment to this tuba is sentimental only. I defer to your greater expertise.

[Rev Rob]

From my perspective, you all are critical of this tuba. I invite you to enlighten me and offer your careful critical analysis of this instrument; is it the sound, the intonation, the quality of craftsmanship that you are concerned about?

I hope I am not sounding like a harpie here, but I rely on your expertise as I thread my way through tubaland.

[Ken Herrick]

That is what I call a very well informed opinion, Wade. It would be good if more people expressing opinions on various makes, models of tubas, etc. were basing their statements on factual experience. All too often we get "It's a POS" or "It's the greatest"b but I've never seen/played one coming from people who really haven't got the first bloody clue what they are on about, but just like to keep the "number of posts counter" ticking over.

Well Done.

I now feel that I have a good reason NOT to recommend to somebody that they buy this instrument.

[Rev Rob]

The bidding ended on the 31st of March with 37 bids in and was sold at $2501.00. Time will tell if this was a successful purchase where the purchaser is happy with the result of their investment.

Mr. Elephant, Thanks for offering such detailed and objective analysis of the music retail business and your evaluation of tuba craftsmanship. When I purchased my King 2341, it was basically a roughly educated shot in the dark. It is good to read from so many tuba players that this is a consistently good horn, not great, but consistently good. Right now it is a better horn than I am a player, hopefully practice and access to a teacher will change that.

[Roger Lewis]

If I can chime in here, these horns were rather unique, but you had to understand the set-up to really get the impact of the design. After many attempts by CG Conn to bring the "Harvey Phillips model" back into existence, Harvey turned to Holton to do this and they did a good job with the design.

There were two large collars that were held together with larger screws so that virtually any part of the horn could be de-dented, and the valve body/leadpipe were also removable for easier cleaning. The design was touted as the first tuba designed entirely with CAD/CAM (computer assisted design/computer assisted manufacturing), but on the BBb model there was a miscalculation on the length of the 3rd valve slide causing those notes using that valve to be flat. Holton was very quick to re-design the slides and send me replacements.

The biggest aspect of this misunderstood instrument is the playing set-up. Mr. Phillips' personal horn is a 4 valve model and he uses unique slide positions to make it extremely versatile. The 4th valve slide is designed to be pulled out until it is a whole step lower than usual. So low C's and B naturals (on the BBb model) were to be played 1&3 and 123 respectively with a pull on the 1st slide. The 4th valve was for the low Eb, tuned down from F. This made it more of a compensating instrument when you think about it. When the horn is set up this way it plays well, but you have to get used to it so that it would resonate well.

Yes there were some manufacturing issues, but the basic design, once you get your head around it, was rather unique and they were heavy enough that they put out a significant amount of sound and projection.

Was it a great horn? Probably not. Was it able to get the job done? Definitely. I think the biggest problem was that the design was so different that not many folks took enough time to really figure out how to play it effectively and then condemned it. The tuning set-up requires a bit of thinking outside the norm to get used to but is (as proven by Mr. Phillips) very efficient and unique.

Just my $0.02.

Roger

[J.c. Sherman]

I'll add another $.01

A local school districk has a few of these in BBb. I can say that these three are very nice tubas. Very nice. The thumb rings on all three are at a bit of a weird angle, and the third valves were, as Mr. Lewis noted, flat. However, they are quite nimble little beasts and - when approached on their own terms (these are not HB-21s) are quite fine, with plenty of sound.

That said, all three of these at this school are noticablly different in their leadpipe placement and their overall posture. I would love to take one of these apart to parade rest and reassemble it - I bet it would rock!

J.c.S.

[proam]

Here's a current one of these Holton Harvey Phillips BBb Tubas, model TU331

http://www.ebay.com/itm/122057403771" target="_blank" target="_blank" target="_blank

Seems to be mixed opinions about these. I resurrected this thread instead of starting a new one to include all the previous comments etc contained herein.