Lee Stofer -No longer carries Lidl?

[DonO.]

Lidl instruments are no longer being shown on his site. Does anyone know what’s up with that?

[Mary Ann]

Yikes; page not found. I hope it's a problem with the web site.

[Eric Murphy]

I sent this page to Lee hoping he would respond, but since he hasn't yet, I'll share what I know. I removed the Lidl tubas from Lee's website at his request. On March 4th we drove the remaining Lidl stock to Buddy Rogers Music in Ohio. At this time they are representing Lidl. We are more than happy to discuss the Lidl tubas with customers. Hopefully Lee or Buddy Rogers Music will chime in with a more official answer.

[kingrob76]

Lee mentioned this at the Army Workshop as a possibility, citing more time to work on horns and build more of his Stofer Custom horns.

[Lee Stofer]

On March 4, 2024, Eric & I departed the shop at 5:15AM, and drove to Cincinnati, Ohio and delivered my stock of Josef Lidl instruments to Buddy Rogers Music. We signed a transfer document, and entrusted the representation of Josef Lidl instruments to Chris Hite, a longtime colleague and friend, and a very capable company that is big-enough to serve the public.

I agreed to attempt to represent Josel Lidl two years ago, and have enjoyed doing so. I have enjoyed becoming acquainted with Lubos Hvlaty, the young, energetic and smart CEO of the Czech company. I have really enjoyed being able to import, play-test, service and sell some really fine instruments. Anyone that equates them to Amti/Cerveny is sadly mistaken. A play-test will tell you just how good they are.

I personally own a Josef Lidl rotary tuba now. As convinced as I was of the quality and affordability of these, I increasingly became convinced as the sales increased that the representation needed a staff of more than one or two people to do everything - making orders, dealing with a mountain of importation paperwork, driving to Chicago to pick them up from Air Cargo, prepping, showing, maintaining, selling, shipping, etc. At Buddy Rogers Music, Chris has several departments to help spread the workload around, so he can focus on keeping their cool Tuba Room (you should visit it!) well- stocked, and show and sell tubas. You can reach Chris Hite at chite@buddyrogers.com

Additionally, I was daily/weekly/monthly falling further behind in my main job, of doing repair and restoration work. Between having a repair backlog of 12+ months at this point and not having had time to build any of my tubas in over 2 years, I needed to make changes.

Effective immediately, I am not accepting any new projects for the rest of 2024 that involve anything more than a standard servicing. If you need your instrument cleaned and serviced, which includes some dent work and minor soldering if needed, as listed on the services on my website, I will be happy to do so, by appointment. Eric and I are working full-throttle to finish a plethora of differing projects, while they can still be done. Sourcing piston valve plating and refitting is getting more difficult and expensive all the time. Supplies that I have used and counted on for years are more difficult and expensive to source in many cases, and a few key items are becoming unavailable, making this all more difficult than it was just a very few years prior. I'm not trying to sell any new instruments, but returning the company to it's roots and getting repairs done, within a reasonable amount of time.

[LeMark]

Thanks for the update Lee.

I will say that any comparison to Cerveny should when remembering the glory days when cerveny made great instruments that lasted. The Lidl instruments seem very well put together, they play great, and are still more affordable than most tubas these days. Nice to have them on the market