Sousaswag wrote: Thu May 21, 2026 8:58 pm
That’s a lot to pay for one of those.
HOWEVER
If you get a good one, it can be a great choice. My closest friend owned one that was purchased by the President’s Own, with MAW valves and some other things done to it.
VERY nice playing tuba, very in tune, and a nice sound. I almost bought it twice.
Not all of them are like that, IMHO. I’ve played several. I just wish Mr. P or Mr. T designed it with a movable on the fly 4th slide.
I owned one for a little while and it was a very nice tuba. Mine was about 85% condition, and I think I had about $5k in it.
I liked it a lot -- it's not a particularly big tuba at all, but the bows expand pretty rapidly, so the top bow is really pretty beefy for what it is. More than any other tuba that I've played, the 606 (aka GR-41) really *demanded* being played in a large space.
Playing it at home, it was... okay. But when you stepped on the gas, it had this weird kind of choked up sound like a small tuba being pushed too hard. I'm not sure how else to describe it, but the sound -- especially the loud low range -- is kind of constricted. Sort of the way you hear in a high school player who is learning to play the tuba.
However, when I played it in a large space (like a church, for TubaChristmas), that tuba just exploded with sound, and the low range was quite substantial. More gas, more sound. Tons of output and really easy to control. In a large space, it was really a great horn.
I sold it to get my Alex 163 tuba from Lee Stofer. I probably would have kept the GR-41 otherwise, because it was really a good tuba!
