Re: Re: Re: Tuba Major Horn Reccomendations


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Posted by Sean Chisham on January 03, 2000 at 09:05:41:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Tuba Major Horn Reccomendations posted by Tom Brekhus on January 02, 2000 at 21:26:52:

The original poster said a few things which prompted me to recommend the horns I did.

1. I'm a freshman, tuba performance major

If one is a performance major, then I assume that this person wants to be a paid professional musician. While entirelly possible to do this on most any instrument, the better the equipment, the easier the job may become. It is too competitive to cut corners on equipment in my opinion.

I have made the mistake, on several items, in the past of purchasing something which costs 20-30% less than what I really wanted and needed and ended up selling the item at a loss afterwards to finally purchase what I should have bought in the first place. The Yugo complex.

2. The Meinl Weston 2155, the Willson CC, and the Kalison Daryl Smith

These instruments are nowhere near the declared maximum figure of $6000. Perhaps the individual did not realize the current costs of top flight instruments. Some of the prices of new instruments are unfair and obscene in my opinion for various reasons, but there is little which can be done about this. This is a fact of the current market structure in the US.

3. It will be my primary horn until I can purchase an F tuba

This person is willing to add several thousand more to the picture in the near future for an F tuba, which is a secondary instrument used maybe 5-10% of the time. This money would be better spent on a better "meat and potatoes" instrument. Being a freshman at a university, a school owned F tuba will do fine for a few years until the process can be repeated for an F tuba of his own. Instead of buying a Miraphone CC now and a Kalison F 2 years afterwards, how about a PT-6p now and a Meinl Weston 45slp in 3-4 years?

This person is not in this as a hobby. Trying to forge a path in today's market on a restricted budget is difficult and frustrating. Quality equipment purchases are rarely easy, but well worth it in the end.

sean



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