Re: 2341 prices


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Posted by Kenneth Sloan on January 05, 2003 at 23:51:10:

In Reply to: 2341 prices posted by SHS Tubamaster on January 05, 2003 at 17:23:30:

The new King 2341 plays very nicely - but do play test a couple. In addition to simply listening (and checking a mirror to see if you are smiling after playing for 5 minutes), I recommend two very simple objective tests:

1) pull the tuning slides and check the valve compression. I found considerable variability.

2) pay attention to notes involving the 4th valve. Play notes that can be played with or without the 4th valve and pay attention to how they "feel". A good one will repeat the note without a change in feel. On less good ones it will be obvious when you are using the 4th valve.

That said, I suspect that some large portion of the differences you discover would disappear after a thorough CL&A, with special attention paid to the valves. I never bothered to put one on a tuner until it passed these tests, and when I did I wasn't motivated to look further.

As for prices, conditions vary from store to store and from time to time. The bottom line (new, new 2341 in silver, with case, gigbag, mouthpiece, delivered, including taxes, etc.) should be less than $5k. How much less? that depends.

The ones I played were all "good", with most being "very good" and a few being "excellent". If you are content to order by mail, you are likely to be satisfied. If you would never think of ordering by mail, or anticipate that minor problems really would make you think about shipping tubas back and forth and back and forth - then you'll do much better by play testing several. When you find one that is noticably better than others you've played...you've found a "very good" one (at least). At that point, you can either invest in "tweaking", or you can invest more time in play testing.

In my opinion, if you understand what *type* of tuba the 2341 is and you are interested in that type, then you must play a few before buying anything else - even if you do end up selecting something else. It's good enough that it must be on the short list of anyone looking for a 4/4 BBb piston tuba.


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