Posted by Joe S. on February 03, 2000 at 01:12:52:
In Reply to: St. Petersburg posted by A. Valdez on January 27, 2000 at 16:44:00:
I have to agree with an earlier post discouraging you from purchasing rotary instruments for schools. With the current epidemic of A.D.D. (or what I refer to as V.B.B.: "Very Bad Behavior", publically-owned rotary tubas will be trashed in NO time.) St. Pete's are pretty much the Kleenex of tubas, and Cervany/Amati 68's are tubas and percussion sections all-in-one (rattle traps), by the way.
I would encourage you to pick up some 4-valve King "Symphony Bass" piston tubas with upright (detachable) bells. Issues? CERTAINLY, as have all tubas.
-Cheapest? NOPE.
-At least a A- on sound and intonation, and an AAAAA on sturdiness? YEP. (I am NOT a U.M.I. dealer, B.T.W. I think that most of their stuff is crap. However, the Conn pro-series double french horn and this particular tuba are winners, particularly for school kids.)
I must, due to my tastes, discourage you from the Yamaha 321 4-piston tubas, as they are awkward, and have strange intonation and response problems. Those Yamaha valve guides that last about one week are a nuisance, too.
' an instrument that sounds better than ALL mentioned above, is cheaper, very durable, and has excellent intonation? The plain-old Conn Elkhart 14K "long-action" brass sousaphones, available from overhaul shops...and he responded: "oh well but, we are NOT considering sousaphones...we need CONCERT instruments..." (Has anyone done a blindfold test with a $9000 MW-2155 against one of these sousas? It is quite enlightening.)
' hope the plain talk didn't offend too much.
-Joe