Posted by uhhhh...yourself on November 26, 2002 at 14:11:52:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Alexander Stencil German Tubas posted by uhhhh.... on November 26, 2002 at 13:38:25:
This is not a new tuba. Therefore, comparing it to one of the very few "new" Alexander 163s is worthless.
Alexander has not been making tubas except as special orders for many years until recently. So my observations (all in the past tense if you will observe) are legitimate.
Those large ferrules in the pictures are much less expensive that the very thick sculptured ones formerly used by Alexander. They are uniform in thickness (flat) and have very minimal figuration; nothing like Gebr. Alexander.
I have worked on MANY tubas of this design and they are all cheap, poorly assembled stencils sold by companies in order to "offer a cheaper alternative" (actually to use as a training bed for newer or lesser skilled employees). A "stencil" might be made by a really fine company, but it will not have all of the attention to detail that made the name of that company well respected. So they offer them at a lower price and without the famous name. Rather, they offer them for sale with whatever name you want to import and sell them under.
Just because it looks like a Rudy ferrule to you (or a mid 1970s era Miraphone one to me) does not make it so.
It is not an Alexander. Period.
Wade "post your name next time" Rackley