St. Pete 209N

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ashhealey
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St. Pete 209N

Post by ashhealey »

Let's talk about the St. Pete 209N. I think that St. pete gets a pretty bad wrap and I have never really understood why. I waited until I owned my tuba for quite sometime until I posted anything to make sure the horn was solid. I have now owned it for about two years. My horn has five rotors and overall I haven't noticed a major problem with them. The second one is a little noisey but everything seems to be relatively as long as you keep up on the maintenance. Tuning is pretty accurate it tunes well with a lot of different horns. I play with a lot of different toned horns BBb and F tubas especially. The upper range speaks really well and the lower range is pretty strong but I have definitely played on horns with better lower rage. I don't know about any of the other St. Pete horns... but if you want a brand new tuba that is affordable and will be worth the money the St. Pete 209N is a great bargain. That being said I wish I would have waited until I had been a little closer to college before buying my own horn. I would have done a lot of more searching for a nice used horn that would have been worth the same amount maybe a little more. Still very happy with my St. Pete and hope it lasts me many more years. Any questions I would be more than happy to answer.
toobagrowl
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Re: St. Pete 209N

Post by toobagrowl »

Very decent tubas. Big sound, easy response and well in-tune.
The old ones (from late 90s - early 2000s) had crappy linkage/rotors that had issues. Vince later had German-made rotors & linkage installed on them, so the quality and price shot up. The ones made after the mid-2000s are very decent, IMO.
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PaulMaybery
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Re: St. Pete 209N

Post by PaulMaybery »

Funny. I'm thinking reference to the Chinese clones... and yet ... they have not to my knowledge cloned the St. Pete. HOWEVER ... Weril, aka and/or dba Weingrill in Brazil, has "referenced" the St. Pete. I played on it a bit when I was in Elkhart some years ago as Gemeinhart was handling them along with what became BMB. As it happened I had a St. Pete in the car that I was taking to Baltimore for consignment. Dick Barth and I compared the two side by side and even interchanged tuning slides. I was much impressed with Weingrill's workmanship, and it was also in lacquered brass which gave it a somewhat more serious look and I felt a stronger more complex sound. I believe they are still producing them but I have not seen any in the US since that time.
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MikeMason
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Re: St. Pete 209N

Post by MikeMason »

I have always felt the size/bore ratio was always out of proportion. What is it,like .840?
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