bloke wrote:Have you ever regretted selling a tuba, had a chance to play that tuba again years later, and then suddenly remembered why you sold it (immediately releasing yourself of your regrets) ?
Mike Sanders, in his own words:
http://www.chisham.com/tips/bbs/may2001/messages/54922.html wrote:Just for the record: I won the audition in St. Louis in November,1990, playing my Yorkbrunner. I sold my Alex to Morris Kainuma in 1988. It was a very fine instrument and had that classic sound and I actually had the chance to play it here in Powell Hall with our orchestra a couple years ago when it came up for sale. It just did not work in our acoustics and in our brass section. Too much work to keep up with the folks around me. As far as sheer beauty of sound I sacrifice nothing playing the Yorkbrunner; I'll leave that open to the folks out there who have heard the SLSO...
http://www.chisham.com/tips/bbs/jun2001/messages/60372.html wrote:...One other anecdote that will further explain: a couple years ago I had the opportunity to play my old Alex (which I had sold in 1988) here in the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. I took it in to a rehearsal of Tchaikovsky 4th and after about 15 minutes I put it in the corner and went back to the Yorkbrunner. The tonal output from the Alex could not compare to the Yorkbrunner, and I am refering to quality here also. I just had to work too hard to keep up with the rest of the brass and the orchestra. To varying degrees this is what you get with most of the big 6/4 piston tubas- Yorkbrunner, Nirschl, Holton, etc. I think it was Chester Schmitz who called them "an old man's tuba."
http://www.chisham.com/tips/bbs/jan1999/messages/7790.html wrote:I played an Alex for the better part of 20 years. I bought mine new from the factory in Germany in 1968. It was in unlacquered gold brass (yellow brass being standard) and had 4 valves. I payed $788 for it, including a hard case, airfreight from Frankfort, and 18% duty tax. Shortly after purchasing it I had the first valve tubing shortened and a big ring put on top of the first valve slide. This was my main instrument all through Eastman and I used it in the San Antonio Symphony until 1984 when I bought my Yorkbrunner. I used it for various applications but never as my main orchestral horn after that. Whenever I would take it into the orchestra after playing the Yorkbrunner it felt like I was playing a 184. Also, without exception, every conductor preferred the Yorkbrunner, as did the trombone players I worked with in San Antonio and Utah. I sold it (somewhat regrettably) in 1988 to Morris Kainuma, and the last I heard one of Dave Kirk's students owned it. (Does anyone know...?)
As I recall it had that beautiful classic German tuba sound. I also recall using lots of alternate fingerings and doing lots of slide pulling. Once in a while I get interrested in trying one again and when I do try one it amazes me how much effort it takes to play one. I played everything on mine at one time or another. I made it into the finals in quite a few auditions on it. I did not win another audition on it however. That happened for me on the Yorkbrunner...
http://www.chisham.com/tips/bbs/jan1999/messages/7791.html wrote:One more comment: I have a somewhat unsubstantiated fear that if I ever brought an Alex into the orchestra and my conductor heard it, he would want me to play one all the time.
I would be interested to try my old Marzan again now that Lee Stofer has worked on it. I sort of regret selling it, because it's a cool old tuba... and even before Lee, I liked how it played. But I also don't regret selling it, because it was a backbreaker and uncomfortable to hold. My 188 is better for me in just about every way.
Maybe slightly tangential, but closely related and a cool story nonetheless:
I got a heavily and "poorly" modified 3/4 Rudi in 1990, and I haven't ever played another Rudi like it. Amazing horn (ask Jc Sherman or tubajoe). In 2004 or so, I got a book contract and decided I was a writer now and not a tuba player anymore, so I threw the tuba into a storage closet with the intention of revisiting it but I never looked back (silly me). Then, in 2008, the storage place got ripped off and my horn was stolen. For an ex-tuba player, I reacted WAY too strongly to the news, so I got back into playing with a new-to-me tuba and started gigging again. Last summer, Jc recognized the stolen horn in an ebay ad, and the cops in the seller's area and I set up a sting. It was very badly abused when I got it, it looks like someone kicked in the valve linkage or something and there's a massive leak from busted solder in there, but after a couple days playing lip slurs (the only pitches available on the instrument so far), I already fell back in love with that horn. So now a serious refurb is in order and I'll put by B&S up on the block after that. It'll be a very happy ending by the end of 2012.
nope. Never happened to me. When I sell something, I'm pretty darn sure.
I did sell a nice rebuilt Rudolf Meinl 4/4 CC around 2003 maybe. It was evidently resold after I sold it. I saw pictures of it a couple of years ago when it was listed for sale at a crackhead high price. It had been beaten up pretty bad. I winced when I saw it and laughed at the asking price. I momentarily regretted putting in the hands of college kids, but not dealing with the sky high 6th and 8th partials. While I liked that tuba, I did not regret having the money instead of that tuba.
In my Horn player days I had a Yamaha 868D, it was my first "pro" level horn and it played fantastically. A few years later at the beginning of the geyer revolution ( ie everyone seemed to be switching to geyer wrapped horns ) and I had the gotta haves it. So when I ended up in an Air Force band with all kinds of horns to use ( Lawsons mainly ) I decided I could sell it and get something geyer like down the road. Upon leaving the air force I got my geyer wrapped horn, dystonia had fully set in at this point, and I will never really know if I liked it or not. Even though I only play horn once in a blue moon, I miss my 868 something fierce and I've only ever seen one for sell in the past 15 years and it was for several thousand more than what they cost new when they where being produced.
