Posted by Lew on March 09, 2001 at 09:21:37:
In Reply to: Please help out this mom! posted by Tuba mom on March 09, 2001 at 00:44:53:
As another poster said, the first thing to try would be to see if the High School would lend him a tuba. Schools sometimes have more tubas than players and would be glad to lend one to a middle school student to prepare him for high school. If that's not a possibility you can consider buying a horn.
If you decide to do this I would suggest don't do this alone! There are a large variety of tubas out there with different characteristics and in different price ranges. Buying on eBay is particularly risky if you don't know the market or what you are looking at. Even if you do know what you are doing you can get burned due to the limited information that is often available on eBay auctions. Get your son's music teacher's opinion before you buy anything.
That said, there is a BIG difference between a tuba made in Japan and made in China. Most of the Chinese horns are junk and definitely not worth bothering with. Yamaha, in Japan, makes very fine musical instruments ranging from student to professional quality. Other Japanese companies have less of a reputation, but are generally better than Chinese. I would recommend staying away from Chinese and Indian tubas in general.
It is hard to find a good tuba for around $1200, but not impossible. I just sold a Boosey & Hawkes BBb tuba for $1000 (about what I paid for it) that is a great playing tuba, so I know that they exist. I would look for a used tuba made by Conn, King, Olds, or Besson/Boosey & Hawkes. Yes, there are other brands, but these are the ones that you are most likely to find in your price range. The Conn 10J, 12J, or 15J would all be decent choices for a beginner, as would the King 1135, or 1140. I have seen Olds 3 valve model O-99s selling recently for around $1000 and these are also good choices. Depending on condition these should sell for between $900 - $1500. I noticed for example that Oberloh Music, www.oberloh.com, has a used Conn 10J for sale for $1150. Check the "shops" link on this page to see what other stores have. If you buy this type of horn you should have no problem getting most of your money back out of it if and when you decide to sell it, as long as he takes care of it.