Re: York or Holton Tubas For Sale


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Posted by Rick Denney on July 25, 2003 at 00:26:35:

In Reply to: York or Holton Tubas For Sale posted by Sam on July 23, 2003 at 11:11:03:

The big Yorks in BBb come up really rarely. Most of them are top-action BBb's with a smaller bore but the big outer branches. These are ripe for conversion to CC, and most of them that appear have been converted.

Holton 345's are another matter. The older monster Holtons with top-action valves are sometimes converted as is the occasional 345, with mixed results at best.

And BBb 345's are certainly not guaranteed to be wonderful, though I daresay there are more wonderful ones than we hear about, because they don't get sold. Mine, for example, is decidedly NOT for sale.

Five BBb Holton 345's changed hands in the last year or so, and that is a rare occurrence, it seems to me.

If you want a BBb tuba in the same tradition as the famous CSO York (itself part of a tradition rather than an innovation), and you don't want a new derivative of that tradition, then you have to be patient, and you have to be ready to jump when the opportunity appears. The choices include the Conn Orchestra Grand Bass, various Yorks, a King Symphony Bass (I think that's what it's called), a Martin, or a Holton 345. None of these are uniformly wonderful, but the good ones are truly great.

You'll see a handful of these come up for sale every year, and more recently. All the talk about the big Holtons seems to have drawn a couple out into the market, and that sort of thing might happen again.

By the way, Klaus is correct that even the large-bore York Masters are not in the same category of these instruments. They are smaller, and they have a strong German accent (and, no, I'm not in the mood to try and define that).

Rick "who learned of his Holton on a Wednesday and bought it on the following Friday" Denney


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