Flying Tuba

[Tim Jackson]

Thought I'd report on this since everything went so smooth... and I'm feelin' so good!

Trip to South Florida to pick up a CB50 tuba. This was listed on Sarasota craigslist and mentioned here on "off-site deals". I had a feeling this might be something good so I jumped on it. The horn belonged to the late Everett Larson of Englewood Florida.

I pretty much bought it on the word of a teacher/acquaintance that knew Everett up north. His wife had me call him to get info on the horn and he said it was a good one!

Finally decided to fly down to pick it up since the wife didn't want to spend 7-8 hours of drive time each way. I bought an extra seat for the horn at $105 one way/return trip. Our tickets were only $210 each for the round trip. Silver Airlines managed by United did a great job!

The soft case that came with it had no wheels so we bought a $14.95 stroller at Walmart to get around the Tampa airport:

Getzen stroller ll.JPG

Airport Security:
No problems really, I offered to assist with getting out of the bag and ready for inspection. They took the tuba over to a counter and tested for explosives. They were VERY CAREFUL! The gig bag fit on the belt with other personal items to be x-rayed. I meet them by their counter and bagged it up and back on the stroller. We had allowed plenty of time and thanked everyone for taking care of us.

Boarding:
Most folks were ready to take it into the cargo hold but we kept reminding everyone we bought a ticket for the tuba and it was "seated baggage". A crew member even insisted on taking it up the boarding stairs for me - which I obliged as those stairs looked narrow and he looked pretty healthy. They even wanted to carry it down the isle to the seat but I took over.

Seating:
Seemed like the tuba would be better on the floor than on the seat. Our friend (works for Expedia) set up the deal for us to have 2nd row as the 1st row seats do not lean back.

The Tuba had a nice view:

Getzen Prop ll.JPG

Everything went without a hitch! Plenty of planning and kindness to all the crew. 5 stars to Silver Airlines.

I gave it a few toots at the seller's house and a little playtime in the board room at the hotel... now that it's home I just finished a 1 hour work out. This horn plays great plus... Everett took wonderful care of this horn - looks new! SN# 30097 Canadian Brass. Bonus - the widow let me pick out a few mouthpieces to go with the horn. I took the Chuck Daellenback Helleberg (figured it came with the horn) and a Monette 99 with the cool rocky mountain case. By the insertion marks, it looked like the Monette had been used a lot with this horn. Yep, it is a very good match for the CB50 as is the Helleberg.

I took a chance and was very lucky. I love the horn and it is in mint condition!

[Tim Jackson]

Getzen home ll.JPG

It seems to be all original and no sign of major repairs. The slides are wonderful almost think they were hand lapped. The valves are fast and smooth.

I like the "blow" and it is certainly on the same level "in its own unique way" as other great horns I've had.

Tim's happy family!

CB50
Walter Nirschl 4/4
1960 5U CC miraphone
6/4 York BBb
Yamaha 621F

[windshieldbug]

[tbonesullivan]

Nice Tuba! That's the model made by Getzen, correct? Seems like a nice horn, from what I've read. A shame that Getzen pretty much got out of Tubas, though they were only making part of the instrument to begin with.

Some searching found that Lee Stofer ended up with a lot of the parts, and has helped improve the C-50/G-50 tuba, so you might want to give him a shout.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=88554" target="_blank

[Tim Jackson]

Yes, I am planning on having Lee tweak this instrument... even though I think it is very good in its present state. actually, I've been following Lee's work on this model and that is the only reason I picked one up. Honestly, I could never stand the look of the 5th rotor. Sounds dumb - but I do have an image of a perfect tuba in my head... but now that I'm over the hill I just care about playability. My horn seems to be very sound mechanically and the plating is 95% - one strip of silver right along the bell wire has worn off. It's right above the valve slides and not really noticeable.

The only problem I have is putting it down long enough to send it to lee.

TJ