Re: Trading Horns?


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Posted by Rick Denney on November 17, 2000 at 15:18:08:

In Reply to: Trading Horns? posted by Mark F. on November 17, 2000 at 14:17:52:

I have a similar story. I was playing in a community band in Texas, and one of our newer members was preparing a college career as a tuba player. He wanted to make the switch to a CC, and was enamoured of a new VMI that had appeared at Orpheus (it was a good time to live in San Antonio). He had a battered but serviceable Miraphone 186 BBb horn.

I had a Sanders BBb (just like yours)--the stenciled Cerveny with the .795 bore. I also had a 4-valve Musica F tuba which was a typical small rotary F tuba--pretty-sounding high up and oinky down low. I had bought the Yamaha F tuba recently, and it was really a far superior F.

My bandmate was complaining about wanting a different horn than he had, and I would have preferred his Miraphone to my Sanders anyday. Impulsively (or so it seemed), I told him that if he was going to be dissatisfied with his horn anyway (because it was a BBb), he might as well be dissatisfied with my BBb and my F tuba, and let me have his Miraphone. My argument went that when he was ready to buy the VMI, my two horns would be better trade fodder than his one battered Miraphone, and he would go to college knowing how to play an F tuba. To my surprise, he bit on this bait, and we traded straight up.

A year later, according to plan, he traded both instruments for a VMI, and indeed got more than he would have just trading the beat-up Miraphone. And, he knew how to play F tuba. In the meantime, I had the Miraphone overhauled, which fixed all its problems and made it one of the better examples of mid-70's Miraphones I have played.

Rick "who most of the time just pays the money and then feels guilty" Denney


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