Re: Great tubas you have owned


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Posted by Jay Bertolet on June 28, 2001 at 14:49:10:

In Reply to: Great tubas you have owned posted by Dale on June 28, 2001 at 09:40:25:

While it's not exactly a case of me yearning for this horn today, I wish I had been able to keep my first tuba ever, an old York Master BBb. This horn was nearly identical to the one Rick Denney recently purchased but I don't think mine was as good as Oscar LaGasse's (at least that is how I remember it from the fog of my youth). When I got to college, I was encouraged to switch to CC tuba, something I had already been considering for over a year. I finally narrowed the search down to an adjustable leadpipe Hirsbrunner that was made for Roger Bobo (or so they told me at Custom) and a Rudy RM-10 that was being sold by a tuba player who was getting out of playing and into brass repair. He apprenticed with a repairman in Detroit and his final project was to overhaul his own tuba and sell it. Unfortunately, both horns cost more money than I had, so I was compelled to sell my York to finance the new horn. It was that or stay with the York. I quickly found a buyer for the horn and I heard later that Bob Rusk cut the horn into a CC. A couple of years later, I ran into the guy who owned it at an audition and he was kind enough to let me honk a few notes on it. The horn was basically ruined. It had a magnificent sound on certain notes but the ranges were inconsistent sounding and there were significant pitch problems as well as notes that just wouldn't center, a problem that never occurred before the cut. I remember thinking that I was really relieved that I chose to sell the York rather than roll the dice and have it cut myself. I definitely got the better end of that stick. But it would be really nice to have that old BBb back. In many ways, I'm curious to see how I would react to that horn after the years of experience I now have. Too bad it can never happen since the horn has been cut.

My opinion for what it's worth...


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