Posted by Dale Phelps on November 11, 2003 at 10:28:21:
the brass 5-valve Alex was built somewhere in the mid-70's,
has a rose brass big leadpipe, perfect valves & linkage, really pretty, the famous Alex sound (a little darker than the older ones but not quite as dark as the brand new ones.) Low range and intonation are better than average for Alexes, and very good actually if you are using a more appropriate, "traditional" f-tuba mouthpiece. It also has a very cool, large, custom thumb-ring. It was recently serviced by Dan Oberloh and he did some very nice things that dramatically improved its play-ability. If/when I sell this one I will have him do the same to the silver 6-valve I have, if THAT one improves as much as this brass one did I'll keep it! Overall condition is "excellent", I am asking 4500 for it, which is a pretty firm price and very fair for a horn of this caliber, especially since new Alexes are coming in well over 7K now due to the dollar being so weak against the euro. The horn is presently in San Jose CA, please let me know via e-mail if you have any other questions, and thanks for reading!
Sincerely,
Dale Phelps
Boulder CO