So long/short story:
Since getting back into the tuba game this summer/fall, I've really enjoyed playing again. I love my 1960 186CC, shoutout to TimJackson. That horn is what I've wanted in a contrabass tuba my tuba life since 1991. My 1998 version was vanilla, and blah. Easy to play, but she had no distinct voice as compared to this one.
I was blessed to get the opportunity to play a wonderful Symphonie F in college. I fell in love with it at the first note. I had to hand it in when I went off into the world of student teaching. I ended up with an early Perantucci model (Pt-10) I believe from my high school teacher, who was also my first tuba teacher. It had a slightly better D, D#, C, and B, but there wasn't the sparkle in sound that the Symphonie had. I sold it through Baltimore Brass to finance my cello back when money was much tighter. (Mortgage, but pre-kids) So I've been missing my voice in instruments since 2009.
After awaking from my dream, where I was told to get back into tuba, I had to get a contrabass first, but then I knew that I wanted an F tuba. I play this for my own musical growth as of now, and Tuba Christmas on the first part, of course. The Cerveny 653 is a good horn, but it is SMALL, and I tend to huff and puff (like my last name
). I tend to overblow it pretty much all the time. I'm not saying it's bad, it is just very different. I knew that I wanted back in the B&S family. A Symphonie came up locally, but I was slow and arpthark gobbled it up before I could get my crap in order. (No animosity, I'm glad you got it! Enjoy it!) But going down the road in time, arpthark was a great bird-dog in his listing of off-site deals. I read the one listed: "Stolen PT-15," which was listed on ebay in Youngstown, OH. I waited and watched, waited and watched, and again and again and again. I sold some tackle and flushed some cash around Christmas. At this point my sister and her boyfriend visited the prodigal hacienda, and I knew that he had family in the area, as well as mine, who live an hour away in Western PA. I asked them if they would be willing to pick up this horn for me if I purchased it, because shipping a tuba outside of a hard case in a box or a seriously bulletproof trunk is a fool's errand. The two of them went to Tuba Christmas with my family, and they enjoyed it, so they said that they were game.
I hatched my plan. I asked the seller to not ship and that I would have a family member pick it up. They said that that was fine, and entered that option into ebay. I made them an offer (a great one from my perspective) and they accepted. (I think they just wanted rid of it at that point.)
The next Saturday, the day before the big ice storm, my sister picked it up and took it back to her place in Pittsburgh, where she would eventually take it to my father's house up the road, and I would pick it up the next time that I was in town. Winner, winner.
I mentioned this to my students the next Monday, and my principal violist mentioned that she was taking a college tour of Pitt in a couple of weeks. I asked her if she would be interested in delivering the tuba to me, as my sister is a Pitt alumnus and only lives a couple of miles away. She said absolutely that she would bring it back to me. I coordinated the two of them to pick it up last Saturday evening.
Saturday dragged along, and I started getting texts at about 6pm, when the two parties met up. My violist sent me many photos of the tuba in its gig bag in the trunk of her Dad's SUV to make sure that it was stored safe and secure. She did a WONDERFUL job of loading it and cushioning it to bring it home. I told her that if she wants, she could deliver tubas back and forth from her college to the Balto. area for a side gig, she did such a good job! I was very pleased to give her some seed money for her college costs for this hassle to her family.
Ok, so last Monday morning rolls along. I get the horn from her car and run back to my homeroom in the chorus room.
I got it out of the case, and it is absolutely gorgeous. Only a couple of tiny dents which you have to look to see. The valves move like butter, the slides are well greased. Here we go. RVW mvt. 2. I start with my PT-48 which was in my bag, (thanks HeavyMetal). Lots of power, not enough depth. I found a PT-64 that was in a pouch that fits over the bell. Bingo! That's the one.
I describe the sound as absolutely buttery. Not Symphonie sparkly, but just overwhelmingly rich in all registers. The middle C sharp was flat at first, but I've figured it out pretty well, but the rest of the notes are B&S F tuba boringly in tune. 5th valve in the left hand, like the 186 and the Piglet, so it helps in cross-training.
So in review, I LOVE IT! AND THE FORUM IS AWESOME! THANK YOU EVERYONE!
(I love them too, even though they are gooney as a whole and bust stuff up.)