Nirschl-Gemstone 4/4 BBb?

[Lee Stofer]

Yes,
That is the Indian-made Nirschl prototype. It looks much like a mid-1930's York standard BBb in design, but I doubt that it will really play like one. It would be prohibitively expensive to build a true copy of the old York tubas. Yamaha has succeeded in building the 6/4 York, as I witnessed by playing one at ITEC this year (price tag, $30,600.00) The standard-size York BBb or CC would likely cost $20,000.00 to make one that really played like the original.

I have seen the brochure, and have seen the Indian-made euphonium and the 3-front-valve, BBb tuba in person. A Gemstone area representative visited my shop earlier this year, showed me their wares and tried to convince me to sign on as a Gemstone Musical Instruments dealer. I have nothing personal against India, or any other foreign manufacturer, but I'd rather support our own manufacturers, such as Kanstul Musical Instruments, who makes a tuba and euphonium that exceed the Indian-made standards. In fact, the Gemstone representative, after I showed him Kanstul's flagship euphonium, kept on remarking about how gorgeous the Kanstul euphonium was. And, the final kicker for me was that the agreement they wanted me to sign would have committed me to buying a minimum of about $40,000.00 of instruments a year from them, and it would be THEIR CHOICE which instruments they sent. So, I would have no choice if they sent me a ton of Gemeinhardt flutes and 3-valve BBb tubas that are mediocre clones of an old Conn design - sell them, or else. I have just a small shop, and am not prepared to enter an agreement like that. This is the sort of dilemma some companies find themselves in, which might explain a couple of things about what you see in the marketplace.

So, I'm supporting Blessing Musical Instruments, the only US company still making student-line instruments, owned by the grandson of the founder. Their quality seems to just get better all the time. And, I'm supporting Kanstul Musical Instruments, owned by the founder, a company that makes very fine intermediate and professional-line instruments.

[Alex C]

Yes,
That is the Indian-made Nirschl prototype. It looks much like a mid-1930's York standard BBb in design, but I doubt that it will really play like one.
.....

So, I'm supporting Blessing Musical Instruments, the only US company still making student-line instruments, owned by the grandson of the founder. Their quality seems to just get better all the time. And, I'm supporting Kanstul Musical Instruments, owned by the founder, a company that makes very fine intermediate and professional-line instruments.

I hope you get a chance to play the Nirschl 4/4 BBb prototype, I think it is now back on the convention circuit. It doesn't play like a York, it does play remarkably similarly to the Nirschl 4/4 CC though. That would be a real breakthrough and what I am hoping for. I don't think that Gemstone ever considered making a York copy, as you say, it's too expensive to copy all of the specialist aspects (design, brass, tube joining, solderin quality, etc.) of York.

I was not knocked out with the 3 valve beginner BBb tuba, but then it's supposed to be a beginner instrument and I'm not teaching beginners. I was impressed with the compensating euphonium they had. That was a sweet playing instrument and I would have loved to compare it with some of the more well known instruments at ITEC. There was not a quiet room to be had.

---

I wholeheartedly understand your supporting American made instruments.

After considering a new '94 Accord, I bought a '94 Taurus for the same reason. That was the last time I'll do that to support American made products.

I think the offer Gemstone made to you was puzzling, unless you were a large, full-service dealer. There should be something for the brass specialist dealer.

It is disturbing to see the craftsmen and women from the various instrument companies loose their jobs as companies shut down. NAFTA, and other acts of government, offer less-than no protection. Same type thing happened with Besson, who would have thought it could happen? I don't know the solution but change is inevitable.

Blessing makes very good instruments; for many years one of the first-call trumpets here in Dallas showed up in studios with a Blessing trumpet, every time. I haven't played or seen much Kanstul yet, waiting...

[Lee Stofer]

Alex,
You are right - there should be something for the brass specialist dealer, and Blessing, Kanstul and Rudolf Meinl are the three that offered me a distributorship without quotas, while Conn-Selmer and Gemstone only want to sell through large volume dealers. I made inquiries to become a Conn-Selmer dealer several years ago, and the minimum outlay was a requirement to purchase something like 200 instruments a year. All I wanted was the ability to buy a few tubas a year, detail them out and sell them to happy customers. But, that didn't fit into their corporate sales plan, so I only sell new Kanstul, Rudolf Meinl and Blessing instruments.