Guaging interest Kalison DS

[cktuba]

Basically, I prefer rotary valves. There's a horn that I'm interested in (one of the few I'd consider selling the DS for) up for sale. I'll post pics later. If there's no interest, that's fine... because I'm not totally convinced I want to proceed. $5500 would get the horn, Altieri bag and flight case (one of those big heavy wooden carpeted ones).

[arpthark]

Where are you located?

[bort2.0]

FWIW, this is the Kalison that Joe liked.

[cktuba]

Cape Girardeau MO

[Tubajug]

A Kalison DS was the first CC I played in college. I used it for several years before buying a 186. I loved it!

[arpthark]

Super underrated tubas!

One sold for about that much at Dillon recently, but not including the bag or flight case. I think that's a good deal.

[cktuba]

Preparing to get raked over coals... Christmas gig a couple years ago...

[hrender]

Excellent sound!

[The Brute Squad]

FWIW, this is the Kalison that Joe liked.

So much so that I went back to it years later!

Joe "I know you're actually talking about Bloke so I'm stealing his schtick"

[bloke]

Is this one that I picked up in NOLA (when I drove down there - years ago - driving between 10PM and 5AM after an orchestra concert - to play in the Jazz Fest, and someone handed it to me c. 8AM - to take back home and repair) at my hotel...??

If "yes", that was a very good tuba...
...and a VERY WEIRD trip.
I (pre-planned) walked in on a married couple (sleeping in the other bed - sleeping in their clothes - but still: weird) at (again) 5 A.M. climbed into the other bed (somehow, I was supplied with a key to the room) got up three hours later, ate breakfast, drank tons of coffee, did a rehearsal, went up to the Jazz Fest (near Pontchartrain) played the gig, and drove all the way back home. Friggin' STEVIE WONDER played right after us, but [1] I was REALLY needing to get home - and SLEEP, and [2] it was beginning to RAIN...so I left.

Just before I left, David Silverman (The SImpsons animator/director/producer and also a tuba player) introduced himself to me, told me that he dug what I was doing, and - when our bandleader and his wife discovered who he was - pushed me out of the way, and took over the conversation. (Thus, I was able to leave.)

Y'all have seen pictures of David Silverman before, but you might not know it...
(Here he was - years ago - at "Burning Man".)



oh yeah...and...

[cktuba]

No, this isn't that one. You have played it when I've had it down for some work and seemed to like it. If memory serves, you compared it to that horn.

I've played a fair amount of these and this one is (by far) the best example of the DS that I've played. Good enough that I bought it back from Mike Allen (who played it in CO) while I was convinced I needed a bigger horn (PT-6P clone).

[cktuba]

[bort2.0]

Great looking tuba! I don't think I've seen one of these and quite a while. Physically, what is the size similar to? It actually looks kind of like a Yamaha 82 2 without the extremely large bell flare. Maybe that's not a good comparison, just what it reminds me of.

What's the bigness of the sound? Pretty solid 4/4, or a little bit bigger? That is, when you push it hard, especially down low, what's that like?

And maybe I'm totally misremembering, but did this one or at least some of them have a rotax fifth valve?

[cktuba]

It's hard to compare to anything directly. Sound... similar to a Miraphone 1291 but a little more pointed (like a rotary horn due to the long leadpipe). Big enough that when I got the Wisemann I thought the "size" of sound was very similar. And I thought that Wisemann played as well as the couple of PT-6Ps I played after that. Intonation, pretty 188ish. 2/3 for 3rd space Eb, 1/3 pull works a bit better on d, but 4 also works.

[bloke]

Everyone talks about how some of these are great and maybe they do vary, but the one I'm referring to played about as well as some of the very best 2155 tubas, which also seemed to vary somewhat.

This tuba that is for sale isn't far from a whole bunch of big cities, so if anyone is interested in a regular size nice-playing medium-large tuba, they should go check it out.

[bort2.0]

The first tuba I ever bought, the year after I graduated college, was very nearly a Kalison. It was somebody on the old board, and not having played them before, I was a little reluctance to buy without trying, especially since I was living in Baltimore and my parents live a mile away from BBC.
.
I really haven't seen very many of them since then, and that was almost 20 years ago.

The last Kalison that I saw in person was at a small music / repair shop in Manhattan. I forget which model it was, it may have been the 6/4, but he wanted, I believe, $10,000 for it, and was convinced that was a steal. I didn't bother asking to try it. :-).

Sorry, one more comparison, do you think that this is around the size of the Rudy 4345 piston? Or maybe the Gronitz PCM? I'm not really in a position to buy anything at all right now, but those are other things that I had researched pretty significantly at one time or another .

Wishing you an easy sale, for an easy purchase on the other side of the hill.

[TheHatTuba]

Having owned a good DS and 4345P, they don't strike me as very similar. Gross oversimplification but (imho) the 4345P plays smaller than it looks and the DS plays bigger than it looks. I mean both of those comparisons in (mostly) good ways.

I remember the most problematic part of my DS was one of the screws from the detachable valveset wouldn't stop rattling. Loctite won't fix pitch or response issues, but that horn only needed the screw fastened Speaking of response, it was (imo) "slower" than many piston horns. Maybe due to the long leadpipe, but it was a bit rotary like in that regard (imo).

Hasn't been mentioned yet, but these have Bauerfeind (meaning: awesome) pistons.

[cktuba]

The screw thing is an occasional problem that I've had on the other Kalisons I've owned. But, for whatever reason, not this horn. Just like the high Ab is solid on this one.

[bloke]

The way to deal with screws (on anything) that tend to loosen (OK...if it's "worth it") is to have a machinist, make some replacement screws to (either) top specs (or) barely-barely over-specs.

I don't like detachable valvesets.
When I've built tubas for myself, that tack would have solved problems, but I've decided - instead - to "sleep" on such problems, and allow the "sleep-think" to present me with workarounds.

Due to working on SO VERY MANY abused school-owned instruments, I'm just diametrically opposed to detachable leadpipes and detachable braces.
(100% of even slightly-abused school instruments' detachable mouthpipes leak, as well as 100% of similar instruments missing brace screws (or missing detachable brace parts or fragments). EXCEPTION: I made a RM 5/4 C mouthpipe 50% detachable, because I made it taper down to a more reasonably-sized small end, and didn't wish to toss the oem half-mouthpipe in the trash (as I've tended to sell all the C tubas I've ever owned, and was admitting that to myself at that time).

personally-owned instruments:
Once a player/owner is no longer a child (c. age 26 - 30...), "busting stuff a lot" seems to become less of an issue.

[cktuba]

The screw that holds my leadpipe and the closest valveset screw to that one are actually screws picked out by Bloke. So, maybe that (ever so slightly larger) is why I'm not having any issues.