I sent my new tuba to this guy to repair it. In an odd case of connect the dots, Matt, my tuba supplier, knew this guy Jc in music school (Oberlin). Turns out there are not many repair techs who can ‘draw tubes’ for repairs. So while Jc fixes my tuba to professional level, I have a loaner from Matt. I’ve played a total of 5 different tubas now in the last 2 years. A Yamaha 5/4 BBb, a Miraphone BBb, a Big Ass Tuba (BAT)modeled after a York of unknown origin (piston valves), the Yamaha YCB661 CC tuba that I own, and now a Rudolf Meinl CC 5 rotor valve tuba.
That’s more tuba’s than I tried in the rest of my life. It’s great having this opportunity with Matt – the trombone player in the M-soft Orch.
The tuba I own sold for around $5,000 new, back in 1992. I’ve been told that the Rudolf Meinl (made in Germany) sold for around $20,000 when it was new. That’s right, more than a brand new Ford Taurus. It is an extremely nice tuba and likely to fetch close to $10,000 today.
On the plus side, it is not 3 times better playing than my tuba. But it is better. It is very pretty, good sounding and has some really nice details such as as thumb trigger for the second valve (like the third valve on a trumpet) for fine tuning any of those notes. I’ve never seen one of those.
What a treat!
(Correction to the model I have; it’s a YCB 661)
Tuba revisited
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