Visit to Lee Stofer's Shop

[daktx2]

I was at Lee Stofer's shop in Iowa recently to try and ultimately purchase a Czech made C tuba he had in stock. Lee was a gracious host, and while doing some work on it (adding spit valves) he invited me to try a couple of the tubas he had in the shop. They were interesting enough to warrant a few paragraphs. (in the business we call this "earned media")

B and S Symphonie C tuba: This is a small C tuba from probably the 70s or 80s. It appears to have the same valveset and bell that Symphonie F tubas have. I've seen these written about a handful of times on the various tuba forums, but never come across one. Intonation was quite good, with G's that lined up well, and response was very even up and down the scale. This was quite a surprise to me, as the modernized varisnts of this design, the PT3 and 4, can be pretty wonky, especially top space G. It was very small and lightweight, very easy to carry. It definitely isn't made to put a ton of sound out, and wouldn't be a great choice for playing Shostakovich with a large orchestra or something like that, but if I had a use for a quintet/chamber C tuba, this would be an awesome choice. Very unusual and uncommon horn!

Stofer custom C:These are the Getzen G50 patterned C tubas Lee builds, and it was a wonderful instrument. It was pretty heavy, and had the feel of a Wilson or Hirsbrunner in that it is obviously the product of a ton of attention to detail and assembled with precision. It played well, intonation was good, and it made lots of the fluffy American sound you'd expect out of a small bore 19 inch bell horn like this.

All in all, it was a nice way to spend a day off work, all thanks to Lee!