Posted by Mark Preece on May 09, 2003 at 00:52:51:
In Reply to: How did you afford your horn? posted by Broke on May 08, 2003 at 18:31:43:
I can only speak for myself, but I worked for 3 years before starting my university degree. Now at 25, I own 2 tubas. There are 2 keys here: Constant savings, and constant shopping. Talk to all the different companies you can, and see if they are willing to budge a little bit on the price. No tuba is sold for the listed price, so there are deals out there. I shopped online for about 6 months, talking with 6-7 different tuba reps to see what my options were and what they could do for me.
I bought a 6/4 CC VMI 5198 Mel Culbertson from Matt Walters at Dillon Music, because he was the best with responses, as well as pricing. I drove from Kitchener, Ontario to NJ to try out the horns, and I walked away a very satisfied customer. Some companies (like Dillon) even have a special company rate for hotels if you need to stay the night... yet another perc I took advantage of while talking to him.
Just a few thoughts...