Cost of Converting 4 Valve BBb Tuba to CC?

[Rick Denney]

To answer the question: Bob Rusk used to get a coupla grand, at wholesale, to cut an instrument, and that was a decade or two back. That was in addition to the required overhaul.

For a while he was only converting instruments that were NOT viable as a Bb tuba, such as battered top-action 3-valve York Monsters. When those carcasses could be bought for a few hundred dollars, it made sense to convert them. But after a while, those carcasses became more rare and their prices went up to the point where the final product was no longer competitively priced for the usual buyers of these instruments.

And now, several sellers have very nice Asian-made CC grand orchestral tubas that can serve those who need a competent BAT on a reduced budget.

Finally, some Bb tuba players are willing to spend more money for interesting and unusual instruments compared to the old days when Bb was the sole domain (in the U.S.) of amateurs unwilling to pay the usual price of a professional instrument. Considering what I paid for it and then what I paid to have it brought up to proper playing condition, my BB-345 cost me only a coupla thousand less than what a similar-condition factory CC-345 would cost.

Rick "suspecting the conversion by a real expert is no longer available at any price" Denney