Re: More about buying a C tuba


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Posted by Roger Lewis on June 30, 2002 at 10:58:12:

In Reply to: More about buying a C tuba posted by Doug on June 28, 2002 at 21:56:11:

Try music123.com for the Conn - they have a policy to beat any legitimate price and they carry the Conn/UMI lines. The Brasswind has the 188 for $5795 and I'm sure they will be happy to beat any price you have for the whole set-up. Call the store for details and ask for Roger the Tuba Guy.

As to financing. Several companies offer some sort of payment plan. Music 123 and the Brasswind both have the "Keynotes Card" which is a credit card that you can charge the whole instrument to and pay off in installments - the interest rate is kind of high so I'm not sure if it is the way to go. The Brasswind also offers a three-payment plan through your credit card. 50% down on the credit card, then you are billed 25% the next month and the final 25% the third month. It’s still not the greatest way to do things but better than nothing.

What you want to do is look to your local musician's union to see if they have a credit union attached to it. I bought my Yorkbrunner this way. I had been a member of the Houston Musician's union and of their Credit Union as well. When I left Houston, I left some money in the credit union. When I went to buy the Hirsbrunner I found out that the credit union offered loans on instruments over $10,000 and I still qualified by having an account there. They paid for 80% of the cost of the instrument on a loan, 11% fixed interest over 5 years. My payment was $259 per month and I had to put about $3,000 of my own down. I picked up plenty of extra work because of this horn and it paid for itself easily each month. The loan even included the sales tax, since I live in Michigan and had to buy it from Custom Music.

What all of this is leading to is that, if you want to compete, you need to have the best equipment available (I'm not saying that a Yorkbrunner is the best equipment by that statement) but don't worry as much about the $$$$ as you do the capabilities of the instrument. I won Tanglewood on a Cerveny "Piggy" and played this horn with the Boston Pops while I was there. But eventually you reach the point where you can no longer push the horn any farther past its limits. When the symphony scheduled Mahler 2, I knew I had to get a bigger horn (10 trumpets, 8 horns, 4 trombones and me) and that's when I bought the Yorkbrunner.

Will you be trading in the 188 4 years from now, taking a loss on your investment, and buying something MORE competitive (the 188 is a very capable instrument). Just me playing the devil's advocate and getting you to think a little about the future.

Roger



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