Tubas, euphoniums, mouthpieces, and anything music-related.
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bloke wrote:Someone else on this forum has one of those things. They report that it's not amazing. That having been said. the pictures of them are alluring... I'm referring to the Martin.
When I was in some short-lived thingy (that I neither auditioned for or nor was particularly interested in participating in) called the "All-City Band" in Memphis - a junior high thing, some kid next to me had one of those plastic Martins.[emoji41]
Our band director sent two of us to play tuba in that and no one else. I didn't at all think of us as amazing tuba players. Maybe, he was impressed that we played the right notes.
We rehearsed in some schools cafeteria, where there was a sour mop smell. [emoji853]
1.) I have one of those Martin fiberglass tubas. It is completely competent. It needs a fourth valve and they all need rebuilding—the cement they used for the brass braces has let go. But Martin never made instruments that didn’t play.
2.) I was also in the Houston All-City Band in junior high. We rehearsed at the new High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in the old Temple Beth Israel which had been sold to the adjoining Sam Houston High School when the congregation relocated. The conductor was revered, and hand-picked by Ed Trongoni. Mr. Trongoni was the oboist in the Houston Symphony and had been hired in the 50’s by the Houston schools to establish a competent music program. He succeeded.
The concert we played occurred on a day of flooding rains and half the band didn’t make it (I remember my father pushing the car through a flooded intersection because water in the tailpipe had stalled the engine). Half the program was skipped because of the missing players. I also don’t recall what we played.
Rick “played a borrowed Besson on that concert—my school only had sousaphones” Denney
Are you younger than me (young enough so as sousaphones were not considered to be worthy of playing indoor music)...
...or was it that oil-rich Texas (during that era) decided that sousaphones were not indoor-worthy, and the trend was then spread from there...??
bloke "Our school owned a couple of 36K fiberglass sousaphones, a couple of older (out of tune...and I could tell that even when I was 12 years old - as the 5th partial pitches were horrid) Holton fiberglass sousaphones, and a hopelessly-leaky-valves/obviously-repair-shop-ruined King 1240. When I was in the 12th grade, we were issued a very small Miraphone "Standard" model 1270 (3-valve top-action), and a Reynolds TB-10 (same as Olds O-99). The school also owned one mouthpiece: an 'Astro' nylon cup mouthpiece with the wobbly shank heavily masking-taped to the cup - which failed to prevent leakage."
@bloke my junior high school had two sousaphones, a battered 10-year-old 14K and a relatively new King. That’s all we had. I took the King to that first All-City rehearsal, but they arranged for me to use a Besson instead. The other kids had their own instruments. I had actually forgotten all that until you reminded me.
My high school had two 14Ks and a King. And there was a Besson Stratford in semi-destroyed condition in the storage room.
Those band rooms were built and equipped in the early 60’s, and I was there about a decade later. When I got there, nobody wanted to play sousaphones after marching season. But I had no choice and I played that King for concert season and at solo contest until my senior year, when my band director used a personal connection to borrow a Miraphone from Rice University for me to use. I did not fully appreciate that opportunity at the time, though I was grateful.
The 101 I just bought is about the right age and price point for someone like me at that time, so I’m building it into a personal alternative history. A decade later, I bought my own tuba, a Cerveny-made Sanders. It wasn’t that bad, actually, but this Giardinelli is MUCH better.
Rick “Texas was Miraphone Country back then” Denney
Last edited by Rick Denney on Tue Feb 07, 2023 10:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
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My school used Sousaphones for concert, and we thought it was fine because we had those super cool oh so special Sousaphone chairs! Then we moved up in the world when we got rid of the already trashed and abused beyond belief Sousaphones and started using Meinl Weston model 10s, the kind that converted from concert to marching contra style.
King 2341 “new style”
Kanstul 902-3B
Conn Helleberg Standard 120
Rick Denney wrote: ↑Mon Feb 06, 2023 5:51 pm
@bloke my junior high school had two sousaphones, a battered 10-year-old 14K and a relatively new King. That’s all we had. I took the King to that first All-City rehearsal, but they arranged for me to use a Besson instead. The other kids had their own instruments. I had actually forgotten all that until you reminded me.
My high school had two 14Ks and a King. And there was a Besson Stratford in semi-destroyed condition in the storage room.
Those band rooms were built and equipped in the early 60’s, and I was there about a decade later. When I got there, nobody wanted to play sousaphones after marching season. But I had no choice and I played that King for concert season and at solo contest until my senior year, when my band director used a personal connection to borrow a Miraphone from Rice University for me to use. I did not fully appreciate that opportunity at the time, though I was grateful.
The 101 I just bought is about the right age and price point for someone like me at that time, so I’m building it into a personal alternative history. A decade later, I bought my own tuba, a Cerveny-made Sanders. It wasn’t that bad, actually, but this Giardinelli is MUCH better.
Rick “Texas was Miraphone Country back then” Denney
The "Memphis Park Commission Band" owned a Boehm & Meinl 3-piston (.750" bore) recording bass (plus a Conn 36K fiberglass).
I may have only been in the tenth grade, but I took the B&M home, freed and cleaning all the slides, ran gasoline through it - followed up by detergent and water, and put it all back together. ...A couple of weeks later, some (nasty) old fart (who had never played in the band before) took it from me and blew a whole bunch of tobacco sh!t into it. A week or two after that, he took it home with him. I then quit that band - for a year or so. When I came back, that tuba was no longer there (hmm)...which is one of the reason that I'm sort of against public organizations buying expensive/high-end stuff with tax money. ie. It ends up torn up or stolen.
bloke "We took our 36K sousaphones to the All-State band, and sat in front of the 1241's, 186's, Model 25's, and Marzans...one after the other after the other after the other of us - because we were expected to do so by those who came before us."
