Posted by Dale Phelps on February 17, 2000 at 21:57:20:
In Reply to: Converted Tubas posted by Matt A on February 17, 2000 at 17:32:57:
1) Generally, a BBflat tuba that sounds like a BBflat tuba will still have "that" sound when cut to a CC. Many people would consider this a strong disadvantage.
2) Often people purchase a very nice appearing tuba and are shocked when the cut-work doubles the $$ investment. This is probaly also a disadvantage.
3) There are no guarantees that the horn you end up with will compare to what you started with...or with what you expected/hoped for.
4) The people who do this kind of work well are in high demand, they make little money doing it, and so their incentive for doing it is very small.
5) I talked with the craftsman who cut my Bohm and Meinl, and he says he won't even do anymore unless the horn he has to work with is a special case.
6) Try to remember that Joe's 6/4 discussed earlier today is in effect a one-off that was totally hand-crafted and probably has hundreds and hundreds of hours into it. I'd imagine he made 2 or 3 bucks an hour for his time when he sold it last year.
7) All that being said, if you wanna cut a school horn that isn't being used...maybe you should go for it! If I could find a decent old 186 Mirafone (for example) I'd like to cut the valve body to CC and mount it to 184 arches and bows and bell. Thats the way the earliest 184s were done (.770 bore valve section) But honestly I have scant little time and even less inclination to do such things. And remember too that its hard to make a silk purse from a sow's ear...or something like that.
I've rambled too long...if this helps......
--dp