Different Valuations

[Ace]

Situation: Two tubas, identical, EXCEPT one has nickel silver inner and outer slide tubes and the other has brass inner and outer slide tubes. Question: What should be the percentage difference in prices?

Ace

[matt g]

5-10%? Maybe higher if new?

[bloke]

I'm a goofball who really likes slides to move easily, be perfectly aligned, and be able to be easily stepped up to the next level - which is to be able ro move them like first and third trumpet slides. It's way easier to achieve that with brass on brass than nickel on nickel. I've built instruments for myself using both materials, and it takes half the time to fit slides like that with brass. I really don't see either material not holding up through any particular owner's lifetime. We look at some 200-year-old brass instruments slides that are really thin and were made using methods that aren't up to today's manufacturing standards, and about the worst we see is maybe a 16th inch of material rotted away at the ends of the tubes.

I believe what you're referring to though is looks, marketing, and perception. When something is marketed as upscale, consumers are going to view it as upscale, and price it accordingly in the used market.

[bort2.0]

Is this something like a Miraphone 186 (nickel silver slides) vs Miraphone 186-S (brass)?

I don't recall if Tuba Exchange is still selling the brass-slide versions, but the cost difference wasn't dramatic... but it was "enough" to make it look like the "student version" would save you a bit of money. IDK... I've never played them side by side, but some people can hear grass growing, and claim the all-brass sounds a bit darker.

My favorite answer about the difference is what Matt Walters told me once, something like:
The only difference you would notice is that you may need to deal with a little red rot 40 years from now.

[bort2.0]

Situation: Two tubas, identical, EXCEPT one has nickel silver inner and outer slide tubes and the other has brass inner and outer slide tubes. Question: What should be the percentage difference in prices?

Ace

Related, but not exactly the answer...

Years ago, I had a Miraphone 188 in gold brass, and the leadpipe through the main tuning slide were all nickel-silver (including the valve casings). During my quest for a larger tuba (including possibly the Miraphone Bruckner) and an F tuba (possibly the Miraphone FIrebird), I thought that a similar gold brass/all nickel silver configuration would be of interest as well.

I emailed Miraphone about this, and they shared a few brief thoughts:
* The full nickel silver valve section is going to last forever
* The cost difference between nickel-silver slides/brass tubes and all nickel silver (as of the early 2010s) was something ridiculously LOW like $60 or $70.

So I'm not sure what the difference would be between all brass and brass/nickel silver... but the difference between brass/nickel silver and all nickel silver was very low. And although I haven't looked it up, this suggests that the raw material costs of brass and nickel silver are about the same, and it's a matter of selecting which metal to use to build the parts. Nickel silver is harder to work with, and takes more time (hence, more money), but "difficulty of building" is really only relevant to the person building the tuba and the first person to buy it. Nobody else really cares how difficult it was to build after it's built and bought.

For example, the B&S PT-4 CC tuba was an evolution of the PT-3... however, the design made it very difficult and time-consuming to build the tuba. Of course, it WAS possible to build that tuba (because it exists), but B&S was going to lose money on it... because nobody would want to spend significantly more on that tuba, just because it was difficult for them to build it. The PT-4 was short-lived, and was redesigned and re-released as the PT-20.

[bloke]

CONDITION factors in, yes?
answer: YES.

I am completely aware of "hearing" with eyes - and even "hearing" with tactile sensations...

...but (those biases admitted) the two 1960's handmade 5-rotor 186 C tubas (both of which I restored and sold - a few years ago) BOTH played - hands-down - better than any 186 "S"-model I've ever played...and (truth be told) better than any other 186 C tuba I've played (before/since).