Thanks all for the kind comments!
I was playing through a Bach flute partita yesterday and my wife (who usually regards my practicing with some measured stoicism) said something to the effect of, "That tuba sounds really good. None of your other tubas sound like that." The Alexander sound is really special.
To get used to the fingerings in the low range, namely Bb below the staff and lower, I am working on bel canto studies loco and 8vb.
I'll be lugging it to rehearsal tonight just for fun. Maybe a backup recording bell King 2341 in tow (talk about different tubas...)
Sousaswag wrote: Mon Jul 01, 2024 3:18 pm
Wow! What a pair! The Alex tubas are the one make that I’ve never had the chance to play. Hang onto those puppies!
For sure. I owned an Alex 163 (formerly Dean Somerville's, US Army Band, ret.) in 2016/2017 and the sound stuck with me. Ended up getting that
Vienna Alex from Sam Gnagey and really fell in love with the Alex F sound. Ended up performing the VW on that contraption. It belonged to Sam Greene who played in Cincinnati.
(He also had a Sander CC. Both tubas ended up in Sam Gnagey's possession and were in an enormous wooden trunk that custom-fit both of the horns. I couldn't even fit it in the back seat of my car. I ultimately passed on the Sander, which had a two-step (2-3 combo) fourth valve. You occasionally see it lurking for sale, with a lot of (repaired?) cracks in the outer bows.)
The Vienna Alex was really sweet but this one has about 98% of that same sound with a much more friendly setup. I think the bell on the newer Alex has a bit more pancake.
As a lot of you probably know, I do flip tubas, trombones and mouthpieces and things like that, but I didn't buy any of my current setup (Piggy, Alex 163, Alex 157) with the intention of flipping. These are all tubas for which I have waited around for 8 years for prices, my finances, work schedule and ability to travel to all align. It pays to be patient! Well, in this case, I guess it costs three tubas' worth of money to be patient.
