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Up for sale is a stellar Meinl Weston Fafner.

I purchased this horn in January of 2020 for the looming ring cycle at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Unfortunately, due to Covid, this horn never was used for it’s intended purpose. However, since that time I’ve used this horn extensively with the Lyric Opera and with the Grant Park Orchestra.

This is one of the absolute best BBb tubas I’ve ever played. Every brass section I’ve played it in seems to prefer this horn to anything else I play! It is far and away the most in tune tuba I’ve ever owned. Very minimal slide pulling needed aside from the obvious pulling needed for the extreme low register with only four valves. As shown in the pictures, I’ve had a custom adjustable slide pull out onto the first valve to help with reaching the slide.

If you want to absolutely shake the walls of any room you play in, this is the horn for it. It has a huge, warm, Germanic sound that can be easily manipulated to fit the moment.

The horn has minor cosmetic wear as shown in the pictures. Some lacquer wear and a few small dents which make absolutely no difference in how the instrument plays. In addition to the first valve pull, I’ve also had a Saturn water key installed, as well as a small water key in the fourth valve tubing in the back which makes emptying the fourth much more convenient.

The only reason I’m selling this stellar horn is that I’ve found my white whale of BBb tubas and I can’t justify keeping two around. Asking price is $9000 and includes an MTS hard case. The horn is located in the southwest suburbs of Chicago. I’m very leery of shipping tubas, but I would be happy to drive a couple of hours to meet interested parties.

I would also be interested in a trade for a good rotary PT6.
Pictures are here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... w3JWPdHDkn

If interested, message me here or email me at Andy dot Lutz dot Smith at gmail.com

Some of you guys should at least try this thing out.

When these first came out and before I really understood kaiser tubas (because I'd never played one before and I was so accustomed to C instruments - which were not as large in various ways), I tried one out at Baltimore brass and really didn't understand what I was playing. Now that I own a different make of kaiser - and have just about learned how to make the thing go, I would love to play one of these model 195 instruments (again) and compare.

My own kaiser instrument sounds better to me than any of the large tubas I've owned in the past. Yes, I do have to play it a bit more accurately compared to any C instruments - because it's a longer instrument which requires more accuracy, but the payoff is pretty amazing.

I'm lining up more nicely with my orchestra bass trombone colleagues than ever before, and I am understanding why the central European orchestras specify B flat tuba.

If you play this thing, love it, but wish it had a fifth valve, I can see that there's plenty of room past the #4 rotor for both a 5th rotor and the tubing. The main slide ferrules can be shortened to help accommodate, and you'll have nearly all the original tuning range left, though very little of it is needed.

It took me about a week to learn how to play Fountains on my kaiser, and about three days to learn how to play the Ride. I just played the Ride on my kaiser in a concert, and it felt like an old pair of shoes. I believe you'll find that most of the meat and potatoes large tuba literature works just as well or better on B flat, and certainly Prokofiev 5... you just can't get this type of sound with a C instrument.

okay. I've said enough. There are tons of you guys within a very short commute of where this tuba is located. Go play it.

^ Similar experience for me with a Kaiser or two before I had my Rudy 5/4 BBb (which kinda isn't really a kaiser, but whatever...). It killed me to sell that Rudy... the huge BBb sound was so satisfying, and constantly turned heads.

The one thing about the Fafner that's interesting to me, is how underwhelming it looks in photos by itself, and how stunning it looks in context of a person playing it, or next to other tubas.

It also sounds friggin amazing.

Years ago, someone on the old board sent me about 2 dozen audio files/clips of Fafner's being played in major orchestras. I think one was Gene on a 195P, others were (I think Heiko Treibner, Georg Schwark, and few other European players). I'll have to dig those up. Massive sound, so damn fun to listen to.

I wish I could buy this one, but can't right now. Bummer too, I was just in Chicago last week

Good luck selling this. @Andy Smith , what's the tuba you are keeping?

' pretty sure the Vienna State Opera (Philharmonic, yes?) guy plays one. A trombone player section-mate of mine went there a summer ago specifically to listen to them play several operas, and he sent me a few zoomed in pictures of the tuba guy... at least, the tuba guy who was assigned to those operas. (They have a couple of tuba players on staff, correct?)
His may have been a special model (maybe: named after him) that might have had a barely different diameter bell or something but I'm pretty sure it was a 195 something-or-other... and I like the piston version just fine, but - when I've played those - they play more like an overgrown B-flat Thor than like a honest-to-goodness kaiser.

Yeah, I would hope that anyone who tried it would at least be considering possibly buying it, and to move slowly and not wear riveted blue jeans, big belt buckles, or jackets with snaps.

That having been said, without ever playing a (pro quality) kaiser B-flat, a provincial American tuba player is not going to find out what they're all about and what they can do. Not all English players now grab a 19 inch compensating E-flat when it's time to play a bass tuba in an orchestra, and maybe it's time for some Americans to look at other-than-C tubas and - particularly since 1980s - consider some tubas other than copies of a one-off 6/4 C tuba made in Michigan (which was rejected by its first owner).

This is a very strange thread of comments. That said, GLWS, Mr. Smith.

Yeah @dp . I've been too chatty here, but this is in the top echelon of a class of tubas with which not many Americans are particularly familiar, but I believe should be.

I've seen some top echelon orchestral tuba players remark that they're probably going to get themselves a B flat tuba, and then they get something from China or an old Holton or something, and - at least, to me - those aren't the best choices of orchestral B flat tubas, whereas something like this absolutely is..

This Fafner is the real deal! I sold it to Andy after using acquiring it for, and using it with, the Lyric Opera in Jan 2020. The section loved it. I used it on Mahler 1, Prokofiev R&J, and a variety of other settings. This is a pro's horn for sure.

I've owned two Fafners and they are both incredible instruments, not just incredible Kaiser BBb's! The pitch, slotting, blow....all shockingly intuitive. But the sound this thing makes is just....SEISMIC! Would buy it back but I really don't need another tuba in my office...

JW

Bump