First of all, it was a pleasure to meet Lee and spend a couple of hours with him. He's a good visit. After chatting outdoors for nearly an hour we entered his shop so he could inspect the 100+ yr old Conn C-Melody sax that was a small part of the deal; then he showed us the Lee Stofer #7 and #8 custom CC/BBb tubas that were nearing completion. Finally we got to the 191. After opening the MTS case and admiring it's gleaming beauty I picked it up and started playing a bit. I used the new Miraphone mouthpiece that came with the horn, after warming up on mid-range stuff I went low and was happy to hear the low F pop right out. I did some more low stuff, and told Lee that I liked the low range; he said, "Yeah, but I think it could sound better, try this" and handed me a new PT-88 mouthpiece. I put it in, went right for the low F and POW - like it was shot out of a cannon. Lee said, "Well, I guess that'll have to go home with you too", and it did. After playing a while I set her back in the case and told Lee that I'd never owned a rotary tuba before, could he take a minute and point out all the lube points. That turned into a 20 minute lube and valve job. He took out every rotor, cleaned and lubed them all, re-assembled it of course, demo'ed how to lube the linkage, then handed me a bag with all 3 needed oils w needle oilers. They went right in the case, too.
All in all, buying from Lee was a great experience, and I hope to bump into him again.
Now, about the horn, after playing her for a couple of hours last night.
My goal in selling the 345 was to downsize a bit. The 191 does certainly feel smaller to handle and is handier in my lap, and it's about 2 inches shorter than the 345, but it's no small horn, for sure. With the 5th valve equipment and the 3rd valve slide kicker I doubt it weighs more than a couple of pounds less than the 345, but it does feel lighter. The rotary valves are quick and silent, and I love the single spit valve. I'm not sold on the 3rd valve kicker, yet - neither Lee nor I noticed any pitch difference until I got down to low Gb, and then it was obvious. I'll have to get used to that. I like having that 5th valve, and the 191 plays all the pedal range nicely and solidly with fewer facial gymnastics than I'd needed on my Holton. I find that I do still play sharp, as I do on most tubas, and am working on deliberately relaxing my embouchure to bring things down to pitch.
So, that's it, except for a couple photos below. I'm anxious to get busy playing this beauty in the locals bands. I think they'll all like it, and I'm hoping it has close to the power of the 345, as it seems to have.
I'm really happy to have this horn.
Tim
- Sandy and Lee.jpg (125.42 KiB) Viewed 1336 times
- Miraphone 191.jpg (63.9 KiB) Viewed 1336 times
- Lesson in Rotors.jpg (141.63 KiB) Viewed 1336 times
- A Done Deal.jpg (128.95 KiB) Viewed 1336 times
