Re: Re: Holton 6/4 Conspiracy Theory


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Posted by Alex C on November 11, 1999 at 23:10:16:

In Reply to: Re: Holton 6/4 Conspiracy Theory posted by Jay Bertolet on November 10, 1999 at 09:36:24:

When I went to the factory to pick up my instrument, they were making a horn. I stuck around and watched them and I didn't see any English guy in the Elkhorn factory.

It was so much a communal event that I couldn't keep up. Someone bent small (relatively speaking) tubing, someone else bent the larger bows, a different guy was engraving my bell and someone else spun the bell for the new tuba (what a treat that was!). They spilled pitch all over the place once when they forgot the bent tubing hadn't been emptied. Clean up was poor and I ended up doing some myself. I thought I was a pro.

I was treated like a star, not a student. Ted Kexel seemed to be kind of in charge of me, and Paul (?) Westphal seemed to be kind of in charge of assembly. The quality control guy was quite good but was preoccupied with some colored horns for Maynard. He was Hispanic (unusual for Wisc. at that time) and I forgot his name. Nobody English.

LeBlanc can make a ton of money making student line clarinets for the same effort and expense to make one Holton tuba. They can't justify the tuba expense. They have forgotten that quality horns increase the sales of the rest of the line. All giant instrument manufacturers are like that, most of the time.

It's just amazing that Getzen, Holton and UMI are all coming out with new tubas now. I think the Getzen and UMI horns will do well over the long run. Holton's new HP tuba still needs work.




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