Posted by From Parts Unknown on July 24, 2001 at 07:31:46:
In Reply to: st pete tubas posted by me on July 24, 2001 at 00:08:36:
I have played St. Pete tubas on about three different visits to Vince's booth in the past. They play MUCH better with the Rose mouthpiece than with any other. I didn't find too many pitch problems in the upper register, but the low stuff was weird for me (like pedal Bb to low Bb). For me personally, I feel that I would have to use the Rose mouthpiece to sound good on the instrument, but I don't really feel comfortable on that particular mouthpiece. The horn isn't "stuffy" by any means, but it was easily overblown. If I had my "value budget" choice between a St. Pete and say...a Jupiter, I would take the St. Pete in a heartbeat. Actually, for the money, the Schmidt tubas are probably the most horn for the money in that particular price range, but the cases tend to fall apart. I don't know, when you are talking about "bargains", you've got to be willing to just accept a few "quirks". If you are happy with yours, then you got a good one, and that's all that counts!