Posted by Charles D. Ortega on December 30, 1998 at 21:11:34:
In Reply to: Need a tuba posted by Dave G on December 30, 1998 at 17:21:32:
In my opinion, going with a BB-flat 3/4 sounds fine. My advice would be to look in the area pawn shops. Sometimes, you can find yourself an old King, or Yamaha. They are not the cream-of-the-crop, but, they are inexpensive, and they are easy to learn on (truth be told, I bet a large portion of us learned on a King, or a Yamaha!)
Pawn shops are you best bet, or believe it or not, if you have some time to devote to finding one cheap, look in on some garage sales. I know of more than one Tuba player who found an old horn at a garage sale, and bought it for a couple of hundred bucks! And don't worry too much about the way a horn looks. If this is for fun, and you want to learn on something cheap, a few dents or a dull finish is okay.
Who knows, you might get lucky and find an old York tuba that is lying in some pawn shop being sold for $200!
Good luck to you, and it is nice to see someone who just *wants* to play!