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Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 15:49:24 -0700
From: Grant Green
Subject: [CB] Stuffy subcontrabass tubas?
Alan Cole forwards the following:
Dear Friends:
A friend & Potomac Brass Quintet (of Virginia) colleague who plays tuba & bass trombone had the privilege, back when he was a Harvard graduate student, of playing a solo concerto on the university's immense sub-contrabass tuba, a real museum piece that was seldom played & only then for special occasions. In practice while working up the solo, he found that the humongous tuba responded radically differently from any tuba he had ever played before, even to the extent that he had to make up alternate fingerings as he went along. Plus its sound was unfocused & stuffy, as he might have expected from such an outsized instrument. But he's a good player & before too long was able to work up the solo. He chalked up the instrument's funny response & oddball fingerings to its super size. The whole time he was practicing on the extra-big tuba, it was in its accustomed upright position right where it was kept in storage backstage, because it was way too hefty to move around unnecessarily & without help. At dress rehearsal for the performance, some helpers joined in moving the beast to center stage, & while they were at it they discovered & removed from inside the bell of the big tuba a roll of carpet that had been placed there for some unknown reason. My friend the soloist said that with the rug taken out, the venerable tuba sounded lots better, blew much freer, & played OK using conventional fingerings.
-- Alan Cole, rank amateur
McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.
---------------------------------------------------------
From: TRUTHIST1
Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 21:20:27 EDT
Subject: [CB] Check inside your instrument sometimes !
Hi all deep and profound Persons here,
Nice story about the piece of rug found in the sub-CB tuba ! Ha ha
That reminds me of a true story about my bari sax playing out of tune and funny on some lower notes for a few months in our swing band. One day, while playing in the band, I tipped up my stovepipe horn to check some springs and pads for proper sealing, and I heard a clunking sound as I swung up the horn for inspection. Tipping it upside down caused a long forgotten spare bari sax mouthpiece to drop out of the bell ! After that, it played in tune (well, you know, sort of) and didn't do as many strange things.
Now, I look down the "spittoon end" more often and see if the green parasitic fungi are doing well without disturbance. LOL Hey, it was factory cleaned when built back in 1956 ! also was factory tuned ! Seriously, I do twist a 30" rag, with a knot on the end, down the U-neck after each gig or practice, and then wash out the mouthpiece(s) and leadpipe. The narrow pipe parts count most in the sound quality, I think. The rag gets washed out when it turns a nice, proper, green color, about once per year.
If more liberals get put into office, I will probably have to fill out an official "Environ-non-mental Impact Statement" on both air quality and wetlands before I can play a gig.
Peace and progress to all C and B persons in a Bb world !
Save the fungi !
Brother Bari Dave
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Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 21:51:35 -0400
From: Farfl
Subject: [CB] Vichy Auction
Auction results have been posted for the Vichy auction . Some of the prices realized were surprising, and I'll keep the results in mind for December 2nd, although there's no guarantee that things will go the same way bidding wise at that time.
The Mullerphone was estimated at 10,000 Euro and went instead for 15,000. The Sarrusophones went for over their estimates, except for the contrabass, which went for 2, 700 Euro instead of its estimated 3000! As I mentioned before, the metal Selmer bass clarinet that captured my imagination was estimated at 800 Euro, and I bid 1156 Euro and it went for an astonishing 3,500 Euro, and I was also shocked to see that a "petite clarinette" (Eb? C?) also made by Selmer in metal was estimated at 1,000 Euro, which I thought was rather high, but wound up going for 4,200 Euro!!! Obviously, there's a Selmer collector in the bidding
audience!
After reading Debbie's post about her "very used" Contrabass clarinet , I think it's a good thing I didn't win the metal Selmer bass - it looks like I might need the money to repair the Contra Alto clarinet I'm getting from the same eBay auction vendor that Debbie's came from ! ;)
I'll let you know when it arrives...
Steven
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Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 13:02:16 -0700
From: Grant Green
Subject: [CB] Vichy Results
Here are the auction results (thanks for sending me the link, Steven!) for a number of the horns recently sold in Vichy (all prices in euros):
#83
2 martinophones
600€
#281
mullerphone
15,000€
#309
Eb sopranino sarrusophone - Gautrot
4,100€
#310
Bb soprano sarrusophone - Gautrot
2,700€
#311
Eb alto sarrusophone - Gautrot
4,000€
#312
Bb tenor sarrusophone - Gautrot
7,000€
#313
Eb baritone sarrusophone - Gautrot
4,200€
#314
Bb bass sarrusophone, brass - Gautrot
4,000€
#315
C bass sarrusophone, silver - anon
2,500€
#316
Bb bass sarrusophone, nickel- anon
3,000€
#317
Eb contrabass, nickel - Gautrot
2,700€
#318
Bb/C baritone sudrephone, brass
3,500€
#321
3 key serpent droit
2,400€
#322
4 key Serpent Forveille
2,600€
#433
Eb contrabass saxhorn, nickel - Couesnon
150€
#441
contrabass hunting horn, brass
850€
#452
Eb bass cornophone, brass - Besson
2,100€
#454
Eb alto cornophone, brass - Besson
1,800€
I'll try and post pictures with each of the above when this appears in the Digest Archives.
Enjoy!
Grant
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Grant Green contrabass.com
Sarrusophones & other Contrabass Winds
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
---------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 22:17:01 +0200
Subject: Re: [CB] Vichy Results
From: Klaus Bjerre
on 20.06.02 22:02, Grant Green wrote:
> Here are the auction results (thanks for sending me the link, Steven!) for
> a number of the horns recently sold in Vichy (all prices in euros):
>
> #83 (2 martinophones) - 600
> #281 (mullerphone) - 15,000
And the currency is?
Klaus
---------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 13:27:03 -0700
From: Grant Green
Subject: Re: [CB] Vichy Results
At 10:17 PM 6/20/2002 +0200, you wrote:
> > Here are the auction results (thanks for sending me the link, Steven!) for
> > a number of the horns recently sold in Vichy (all prices in euros):
> >
>And the currency is?
Euros.
Grant
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Grant Green contrabass.com
Sarrusophones & other Contrabass Winds
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
---------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 23:02:23 +0200
Subject: Re: [CB] Vichy Results
From: Klaus Bjerre
on 20.06.02 22:27, Grant Green wrote:
> At 10:17 PM 6/20/2002 +0200, you wrote:
>>> Here are the auction results (thanks for sending me the link, Steven!) for
>>> a number of the horns recently sold in Vichy (all prices in euros):
>> And the currency is?
>
> Euros.
Sorrissimo!
But we natives have skipped the text reading for the symbol!
=E2=82=AC (which probably comes out very differently on most monitors)
Klaus
who is not living in a €-country, but who has experienced the simplicities in dealing with such countries.
Only conditionally qualified for this list my last €-acquisition was:
http://abacus.sj.ipixmedia.com/abc/M28/_EBAY_3ab3972edeea2f94a74096f36/i-1.JPGk
---------------------------------------------------------
From: "Spencer Parks"
Subject: Re: [CB] Stuffy subcontrabass tubas?
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 17:31:13 -0500
Great story. I seem to remember having a few of those stories a while ago on this list. I myself have one. To make it short, I pulled out some of my own keys on a string from the HS's Bari my freshman year. Yes, I had lost my keys. Yes, the horn played better. I felt (and still feel) pretty damn stupid about that.
Spencer
>Dear Friends:
***
>beast to center stage, & while they were at it they discovered & removed
>from inside the bell of the big tuba a roll of carpet that had been placed
>there for some unknown reason. My friend the soloist said that with the rug
>taken out, the venerable tuba sounded lots better, blew much freer, &
>played OK using conventional fingerings.
>-- Alan Cole, rank amateur
>McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.
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