Posted by Rick Denney on March 06, 2001 at 14:32:10:
In Reply to: Yamaha 3/4 F tuba for sale posted by Marty Neilan on March 06, 2001 at 13:31:31:
Marty, I'm sorry to hear about your situation, and I hope things improve soon.
Folks, I don't think Marty is overselling this horn. Let me see if I can oversell it for him, heh, heh. Mine is #72, and from the same batch as his. Every pro who has ever played my 621 has wanted it. These are the comments I've received:
Lee Hipp: "This a great horn" when I asked him play-test it before I bought it. When he played it, he pulled away from the mouthpiece with a smile of satisfaction, made the comment, and proceeded to twist my arm somewhere up between my shoulder blades to get me to buy it. He though it was as good as his, which he had owned for several months.
Jay Rozen: "Wow!" when he tried it out about a year after I bought it. Jay was teaching at Southwest Texas, and playing in the Creative Opportunity Jass Ensemble in Austin as well as with the Nelson-Rozen Duo which led to his CD, Killer Tuba Songs. He thought it was a much better instrument than his rare Besson, which became his only instrument a few years ago.
Charles Daellenbach: "It's a world-class F--they really got something right with this one," at a master class I attended in about 1991. He persuaded me to vent the valves--the only change he thought it needed.
Ray Grim, Leader of The Tubameisters and occasional extra player in the San Antonio Symphony: "If this horn ever turns up missing, you'll know where to look."
My point is that lots of folks look at this small horn and underestimate it. Don't. Players who make their living playing, especially for ensemble and solo applications, love it when they try it.
I have played several of these: Lee Hipp's (an early model that he has since sold), Kelly O'Bryant's old horn (#62?, now owned by Andy Smith), which I thought was as good as mine (maybe a bit better resulting from Matt Walters's ministrations), a silver model (#117) which was as good as mine, and a later lacquer model (#217) which led me to believe the truth that the earlier ones were the better ones. Finding a good one is not a crap shoot--you have to go out of your way to find a bad one.
Rick "if you need a horn like this, now's the time" Denney