Posted by dp on November 06, 2002 at 03:53:39:
In Reply to: Trip to Dillon's... posted by Chris R on November 05, 2002 at 23:14:05:
My observation of tuba-ists who chose to be music majors when I was in school (and a couple since I personally finishing school) leads me to believe :
a) if you are going to purchase your own horn (a good idea!) you will benefit a great deal in your preparation for teaching by getting a CC tuba.
b) generally the best all-around horn for a teacher/tuba player is a Mirafone, 186 or 188. Now I know you said you don't care for your school's instruments. I'd strongly suggest you try the current Mirafone CC's, they're different altogether from the usual school-owned BBflats. Also, if you plan for teaching, you just "might" want to consider that over the next 10-20-30 years the one current model horn out there today that is most likely to still be in production, readily available to any of your future students, and is the bar-none absolute most affordable, best value for the money will be (I'd wager) the Mirafones.
--Dale Phelps