Posted by Jay Bertolet on February 11, 2001 at 14:03:55:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Serial #'s- older Rudy posted by Dale on February 11, 2001 at 11:06:56:
It could be, I don't know. All I know is that my horn doesn't have a serial number on it. In fact, there is an interesting story behind that:
I bought my Rudy used from a guy in Detroit who was doing his instrument repair apprenticeship with an accomplished repairman in Hamtramck. Previously, he was a tuba player and worked part time at Custom Music. As was the practice then, shipments were sent to Custom from the various manufacturers as the horns were made. Back then, you'll remember that the big selling point for Custom's tuba lines was that they were playtested (and approved) by great tuba players (in this case, Dan Perantoni). So anytime a shipment came in, the horns sat in the boxes until they were playtested. Once approved, they were tagged and put on the showroom floor to be sold. This also allowed whoever was playtesting the horns to discover if there were really good instruments in a particular lot that could either be bought by the tester or maybe kept aside for his students to purchase. But the procedure was that the new arrivals were kept in storage until the tester could get there and do his thing. In the particular shipment that my Rudy arrived in, the person I bought the horn from broke that policy and tested the horns out himself prior to the playtester's arrival. He found mine, realized it was a great instrument, and switched it with another horn. He then bought the horn for himself. He told me he was able to do this because of the total lack of identification these horns have coming from the factory. He told me that the identification system they used at Custom was actually the number on the box. Any horn could have been in there as long as the box had the number that matched the shipment. I wonder if the number on the box was all that was required to get it through U.S. Customs inspection.
Years later I participated in a low brass festival that was held at Notre Dame. Low brass ensembles of all types participated and the tuba quartet from the University of Michigan played. I got a chance to talk to Dan Perantoni at that event (he was one of the adjudicators) and I offered to let him try my Rudy. He acted like he was pretty shocked when he played it. I asked him about it and he told me that if he had ever played this horn, he never would have passed it on for sale. He would have bought it himself. To be honest, I wasn't sure how much to believe of the story the original seller told me until Dan played the horn. Then I kind of knew the story was probably true.