Posted by Andy Smith on September 28, 2001 at 16:02:24:
Hi everyone,
I'm having a little bit of a crisis lately. I'm starting to debate if I should sell my F tuba or not. Let me explain.
When I bought my current F, Kelly O'Bryant's old Yamaha 621, I had never played F tuba before. I bought it just because of who previously owned it, and until recently, have really liked what I am getting out of the horn.
Now that I'm playing in my school's orchestra, I'm getting chewed out by the conductor for not having a big enough F to play orchestral excerpts on (for instance, we're doing Symphonie Fantastique right now, and I'm having to play it on CC instead of F due to the amount of complaints I was getting from the conductor).
I'm also starting to develop a lot of pitch problems on the horn, for reasons that I don't know. I don't have problems with pitch on my CC, so I don't know what's causing it on my F.
Any suggestions on what to do? Should I keep this horn or trade/sell it for a new horn? If so, what would I get? Thanks very much for the help.
Sincerely,
Andy Smith
Bassdi(AT)aol.com
Tubist at Ithaca College