Horns I sold, that I wish I had back

[tclements]

I thought this might be an interesting study. What tubas, or euphoniums, have you sold that you wish you still had, or which you could get back. Here's my list:

1 - My first tuba was a MW (a Division of Getzen, purchased 1971) Bill Bell Model CC. Removable bell up. I BELIEVE Gary Buttery has this tuba.
2 - My first 186 Mirafone CC. Tommy Johnson picked this out for me (in 1976). A local student has this horn.
3 - The silver 188 Roger Bobo selected for me. At the time, I didn't have the $$$. About 1983-4
4 - My first HB2. I got this from Fred Marrich at Custom Music. Every time I tried to buy this horn, he told me I couldn't have it. After a 4 month trial, I had to send it back. I TRIED to buy it. 1976
5 - The HB50 I went to Sumiswald to pick out. When the old San Jose Symphony went belly up, I sold off all my gear. Early 1990s
6 - The Holton CC that I THINK Don Little has now. About 1989-90
7 - My FIRST 62H Conn bass trombone. Man, this thing was a beauty. 1974
8 - The Alexander 163 6 valve CC that I had built. When I sold "The Low Brass Werks," Steve Ferguson ended up with that tuba. Oddly, one of my Stanford students showed up with that tuba a couple years later. 2002-3

Regrets? Not really. I have some really fine tubas now; they are suiting my needs beautifully.

ENJOY!!

[tubacorbin]

There are probably two.

Tony, the Gronitz FZ-125 F I got from you (here's the only recording I have from when I owned it https://soundcloud.com/tubacorbin/paral ... al_sharing)

The other would be my 6450/2. I didn't and still don't need a horn that large, but that was a special one.

[Sousaswag]

My Hirsbrunner HB2P - Such a beautiful instrument. Just didn’t have a great low register. I don’t regret selling it, but it’s something I’d like to still have just because it was such a cream puff.

My old Thor - I’d want the qualities of intonation and response it had but with the large bell. Again, I don’t regret it, but I miss this one the most.

[Stryk]

The 186 that I bought in college. The guy I sold it to in the early 80s still has it. I bought another a few years ago that is the same vintage.

[bloke]

I've played some of those that I sold (a good while after selling them).

They no longer (none of them) "fit" me, when I played them later.

The very best were the 5450 and the Buescher 4+1 C helicon.

I'm thinking, "Why mention the worst of them? This thread is about regrets, and not about 'good riddance'."

Those that I have hung onto...

The first sound out of them is always "good".

If I'm sick and my ears are stopped up, they actually STILL sound "good" (only not to me, because I'm not hearing them correctly).

[prairieboy1]

Meinl Weston 2145 CC. A terrific horn however the band world plays in Bb.

[ParLawGod]

A few for me:

I sold an Olds O-99-4 that I loved...wish I had kept it.

Had a great Reunion Blues (black leather - LA) trombone gig bag I wish I had kept.

Tried a spectacular King 2B+ Silversonic trombone at a conference...that thing had ZING...should have bought it on the spot. Others I've played since just don't feel the same.

[cktuba]

I'm very satisfied with my current horn.... but....

Kalison Pro 2000 (sound, sound, sound) intonation was OK, but not fantastic
Rudy Meinl 45 (4/4 CC) same as above

[arpthark]

@tclements, I can check with Gary about the Bill Bell model next time I see him if you'd like.

There's a few things I'd like to get back. I don't regret moving on because it made sense at the time, but some tubas are just fun to play.

B&S PT-6 CC - definitely miss it, Jon Voth's old horn. Sold it to Doug Black in 2014.

Vienna system 3+3 Alex F - miss it a lot, best F tuba I've ever played. Such a fantastic sound.

Besson New Standard 15" Eb - miss it. Take good care of it, @sweaty! I am working on finding another one.

B&S JBL F - occasionally miss it, but I didn't think it was the Holy Grail of F tubas or anything. Beautiful high range. Now I'm more into old/ugly as opposed to new/shiny, regardless.

Alex 163 CC - miss it. Traded it for a 188 which was nice but I preferred the Alex overall. 4 valve model with the huge receiver. If you can abide by playing bottom line G 13 and using the normal 5th partial alternates, it required no lipping or slide pulling and was a fantastic-sounding tuba.

early 70s Piggy CC - missed it, but now I have one that is just as good. A great little tuba. John Stevens' and Jon Cradler's old horn.

60s/70s Meinl-Weston 46 - miss it for its compact size, six valves, and manageable intonation. I also got a great deal on it.

===

@cktuba, I also had a Kalison 2000 and it was pretty neat. A very unique horn, great sound.

[Finetales]

Tubas and euphoniums specifically, none.

The Boosey Eb compensator with the 15" bell was a sweet horn, but it badly needed a valve job and I wasn't in a place to do that. Plus I had a very small living space at the time, and a tuba I never used taking up a ton of that space was something I was happy to be rid of.

The prototype Kanstul 975 compensating euphonium I had for many years was also a nice horn. Great ergonomics (unlike many compensating euphs), nice sound, very beefy and free-blowing 4th valve/pedal register. I actually didn't realize just how abnormally easy the low register was until after I sold it. However, it had some annoying intonation quirks in addition to the common ones, and it didn't have the sparkle of a nice Besson or the broadness of a big Willson. Just kind of...there. Cool horn, but I don't want it back.

The Sterling Virtuoso euphonium I replaced the Kanstul with was a very cool horn with a steampunk look. Beautiful sound, good intonation (especially w/trigger), etc. But it had its quirks and I also just kind of...didn't love it. And I never got to use it, so when cash got tight it was an easy choice to sell. I replaced it with a Chinese compensator, which is a good horn that may be uninteresting but also just WORKS. And more importantly, it was cheap enough that I can justify keeping it around regardless of if I get opportunities to play it or not. I'd love to have a really nice euph, but this week I'm playing my first engagement on euphonium since before COVID. There are many other things I need to spend that kind of money on first...a tuba, for instance.

If we're including other brass instruments, the only ones I wish I had back were the ones that I didn't want to sell but had to because of financial difficulties. 1938 Conn 6D, DEG alto cornet, Yamaha circular mellophone, handmade German soprano trombone, a few ultra-rare 3-valve G bugles, and a bunch of synthesizers. But at the same time it's not a strong desire to have them back, as I barely used most of them. I don't like keeping around instruments I don't use, unless they're worth so little it's not worth selling them.

[bort2.0]

An early model, fully handmade, rotary PT-6

Loved it, it was everything I ever wanted in a CC tuba. Newer PT-6 's are good, but lack the "spirit" of the handmade one.

I sold it to for house down payment money, pre COVID/pre-inflation, so we got an excellent return for the tuba sale $. But dang I miss that horn.

[joshealejo]

B&S Mel Culbertson Neptune has a spacial place in my heart as my favorite tuba all the time

[Jperry1466]

Definitely my CC Meinl-Weston (Getzen) Model 30. Very nice-playing horn. In the mid 1980s when I was a high school band director, I thought I'd never play seriously again, and children and house payments became a thing, so the money was helpful. But we would have made it had I not sold it. Been kicking myself ever since.

[Dents Be Gone!]

I agree, guys. This is the way to go.

[The Brute Squad]

I eventually rectified this. I sold my first DS about 15 years ago because I was a broke kollij graduate who needed a new-to-me car more than having two horns.

[bloke]

Several years ago, I picked up an ugly 188 (misidentified by the seller as an 86 B flat) that was a little beat up, but actually not horribly beat up. It was one of the 1980s (I believe were) sheet metal instruments.

I did a really detailed job on straightening it out, and I modernized it to the preferred/popular fifth circuit configuration as well. I shined up some brown areas and sneaked in some new lacquer here and there, and - once I got all the dirt off of it after working on it - it really was quite presentable. It was also about twice as good an instrument as the early 1980s "anniversary model" 88 that I bought brand new (which frankly sucked)... I was also pretty naive in the early 1980s, and paid way too much for that instrument. That having been said, I sold it for just about the same amount a couple of years later after really growing weary of dealing with it.
I still didn't need an 88 again, so what I did was to swap it even for some really popular Chinese tubas (importer's cost) at that time, and quickly liquidated all the Chinese tubas for $XX,XXX.

[jtm]

Several years ago, I picked up an ugly 188 (misidentified by the seller as an 86 B flat) that was a little beat up, but actually not horribly beat up. It was one of the 1980s (I believe were) sheet metal instruments.

You can see a seam with the little tabs along it inside the bottom bow on my mid-80s 188, in case that means anything.

[bloke]

Several years ago, I picked up an ugly 188 (misidentified by the seller as an 86 B flat) that was a little beat up, but actually not horribly beat up. It was one of the 1980s (I believe were) sheet metal instruments.

You can see a seam with the little tabs along it inside the bottom bow on my mid-80s 188, in case that means anything.

I'm thinking that it's still best to fabricate bottom bows (for medium-large and large tubas) from sheet metal...but the rest of the bows can be extruded.

[bone-a-phone]

I sold an Olds P24G bass trombone that I wish I had kept. You can't find those things just lying around. That horn just kind of fit my personality. Somebody told me they preferred the sound of this other horn I had, so I sold the Olds. Should have just told them to keep their opinions to themselves and kept playing the Olds.

And then I sold a King Duo Gravis out of anger one time. I probably should have kept that horn a little longer anyway. I had bought it on ebay, and someone sent it to me unwrapped in a box with a loose mouthpiece. What a miserable mess. So then I gave it to the local repair guy who completely ignored what I asked for and just did what the school repair machine does, and then lied to me about it. So I was understandably angry, and just sold the horn to get rid of the source of a lot of bitterness.

Oh, I had a Wessex prototype of a Bach 42-ish 547 with two valves. And then I put a King 5B bell on it. That was a hummer, let me tell you. I definitely should have kept that. I think I got bored one weekend and put it up for sale. What a friggin idiot. It played like a super Bach, not like any Wessex I ever played. And then with the two valves, it ripped through the ledger lines down like a friggin ripsaw. Boy howdy, that would have taught people a lesson for asking me to play bass bone! Can't imagine what the guy who bought it is doing with that piece of artillery now.

[bloke]

topic: bass trombones sold out of frustration

A number of years ago, I bought one of those older model Yamaha dependent bass trombones (one of the loops looks like a French horn slide - semi-rough condition...not horrible), and did a (truly) beautiful restoration of it (lacquer, etc.)

I played a couple of jobs on it, realized that I was having to work my @$$ off practicing (being very picky about tuning, when practicing), was called out by a second-rate arranger of brass church music (very guilty of writing way too many notes for everyone, and going way off on harmonic tangents) for not playing the parts obnoxiously enough (scolded me that I wasn't as loud as the - at that time - Pitts' Symphony bass trombonist ...' seems to me that this may have simply been an excuse to brag re: who else had played his charts)...I let that get to me, and I sold it on eBay (no reserve); it went to barely over $400.


It was one of these things...
(pic borrowed from another website, as labeled)


Anyway...
The horn player actually got into a bit of an argument with him...
"It's plenty loud; just move on!" (etc.)

...but that gig left a bad taste in my mouth (and - honestly - I had to practice two weeks on that music whereby it would have been a "reading" gig on tuba or euphonium), so I sold it.