Posted by js on June 12, 2002 at 21:11:58:
In Reply to: Re: Convertible Tubas posted by ken k on June 12, 2002 at 20:03:55:
Personally, I'm a *sousaphone fan...
...but I've started (after-market) custom altering a few of the Weril model 980 4 piston top-action tubas (carbon copy of the Yamaha YBB-321) into 4-valve convertable tubas.
These instruments resemble the YBB-201M, except the customized Weril has 4 valves. A lot of band directors think it's pretty cool to get a 4 -valve convertable instrument (unheard of in the regular consumer market) for the price of the "original" brand's 3-valve (Yamaha model 201).
I sell fewer of these than I really could, because, of course, everyone asks for them when I can't stop what I'm doing to "make" them...right in the middle of rental-return-re-rent season (the summer).
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*Call me a panzie, but if - when 13 years old - I had been told that I had to carry and tuba on my shoulder AND hold my arms up in the air for a couple of hours at a time, I would have gone to study hall.