Blast from the Past

[Jperry1466]

While my 50-year-old Miraphone CC is in the shop for a chem cleaning, I needed to borrow a tuba for community band and tuba ensemble. I have been telling the tuba instructor at the local university that there was a 4-valve Getzen Meinl-Weston model 30 that I played when it was new in 1971, and being a CC, it probably had been played by less than a half-dozen students since then, so it really needs to be put to use among his 10 tuba majors. I last saw it 4 years ago, before it got moved to storage, so I contacted the university band director and asked him to help find it. He had the inventory on his phone and immediately located the locker. Both he and the tuba guy were amazed at its condition, and he let me borrow it until mine is home. The horn still plays with that sweet Meinl sound, and the compression is so tight that when I pushed in the 2nd slide, the valve wouldn't go down until I pulled it back out. I told both of them that I would trade my 4-valve Miraphone 184 straight up for it. Universities and the state of Texas don't work that way, of course, but I made the offer. It's been a hoot playing this 53-year-old horn again. I used to own its twin and have kicked myself for over 30 years for selling it.