Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Tuba overhaul web page completed


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Posted by sidelines on February 11, 2003 at 21:33:54:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Tuba overhaul web page completed posted by Tony E on February 11, 2003 at 15:14:55:

I make absolutely no distinction between an "S" and "no S" 186 - except some engraving, a bit of nickel-silver here and there, and retail price. Nor do I pretend to be able to tell very much difference in playing characteristics (certainly not for school kids) between old, thin 16-1/2" bells and new, slightly thicker 17-3/4" bells. My problem, I'm sure, is that I am such a callous player with a tin ear that I'm just not tuned in to these vibrational and projectional subtileties that only true musicians appreciate.

New bells (and they've arrived at my store from Miraphone all shined up quite nicely) are around $400 net to me (I assume other dealers also). ' just seems to me that a brand new "thicker" bell - never creased - might be a bit more servicable for a school than an old thinner - oft creased / oft repaired - bell...especially when someone is going to invest that much time and effort. I sort-of assumed these tubas belonged to a school, since there was a pair of them sitting there in horribly-abused condition...and yep, it seemed to me that new "S" (if you will) 186 tubas cost about $3700 these days. HOWEVER, I've since checked and discovered that new ones NOW are suddenly (apparently in the past few months) about $1000 more. This would dictate that Mr. Oberloh's "deluxe" job makes a lot of sense, economically - allowing for a nice fee for the extensive services...but (with the recently-raised $4700 pricing for "new") could also "allow" for budgeting a bell replacement...and give Mr. Oberloh more hours at home with (I would assume) his beautiful wife.

Factoring in rebuilding noisy rotor bearings (quite time consuming) and all of the "deluxe" level dent removal, after I made note of the extremely excellent work the economics of the situation was the very next thing that occurred to me. I held my toungue until someone else asked the same questions that occurred to me, and to try to get good answers to his questions I elaborated on them - according to dp: when I was drunk.

You seem to ignore the praise that I continue to sincerely offer Mr. Oberloh for his skills and their application.

Inspite of the price increase on this model (that I recently discovered after looking around the web - surely heavily due to the U.S. dollar being in the toilet) instruments are getting cheaper and cheaper. Think how MUCH MONEY $2000 was around thirty years ago. THAT'S about how much I paid for a Mira-186 (OH YES, I FORGOT - "professional model") back then. Today's $4700 ("S" model) is "chump-change" compared to $2000 back then. Back then, not only would $1000 have been a VERY nice amount of money for a repairman to get for a "super-deluxe" Mirafone overhaul (only 1/2 the cost of a "new" instrument), but also overhauling a Mirafone would have been much easier because folks back then didn't act like gorillas and tear these instruments to bits - as they routinely do, today. The economics of repair is getting tighter and tighter, and even top-end stuff like Bach Strad., etc. is becoming close to "throw-away" vs. "restore" when they are treated as they typically are through (ahem) "routine" school use. The list of instruments that ABSOLUTELY ARE NOT WORTH restoring (and I mean "light" restorations) is getting longer and longer - and I mean decent instruments...One can buy them for only a bit more than the cost of a good restoration AND "new" they will have never-been-creased bells, never-dented playing slides (trombones), never-worn rotors/pistons, etc., etc.

I'm sorry that you find my pseudonyms to be annoying, if not just plain dishonorable. My ISP (right click - "View Source") almost always has something about "Memphis" in it, and I'm probably the only person from here that posts (except the occasional post from Bruce [BRUCE'S SOUSAPHONE HEAVEN - "ware we repare yer instermint to aur satisfacshun"]) so if you read a post that you find provoking, right-click and see that it's from Memphis, you can assume it's from me.

Joe S.


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