Sans one?
I spent about 15 minutes to clean and oil the valves, and free the slides. I played for about 20 minutes, the first time I've played anything since December.
This thing absolutely cooks! Really easy to play, sounds great, and very fun. Like, tremendously fun. After a couple of minutes, I smiled and thought, this thing is pretty special.
Not to mention, it's so much lighter than the 38k was. A couple of third valve notes were a little squirrely, but that's because the water key cork needs to be replaced. In the meantime, I tied down the lever with a piece of string, and that corrected just about everything. Anything else, I would say is going to be due to the valve alignment, which I plan to address tomorrow.
The only downside is... I have zero need for any sousaphone, and probably
negative need for an e-flat sousaphone. That's the reason I sold the 38k last summer, because I really just had no use for it. I am NOT a collector, so mentally, I just couldn't handle the idea that the tuba had already sat around unused for so long, and then I was just going to hold it and not use it either.
Both the 38K and this 26K are fantastic, and deserve to be played. If I can't figure out a way or a place to use this, I'll probably let it go as well.
I thought it was priced appropriately, but I made a (polite) offer of a bit less. He declined, and said he bought it purely as window decor, and for any less than the marked price, he'd rather keep it in his window. Fair enough... I told him I'd buy it, but had to leave and come back (pick up my kid from a bday party). He said no problem, just sit it back in the window. In my mind, I thought he doubted that I'd come back, and that's why he asked me to put it back.
But half an hour later, I came back, he remembered me by name, and had it all packed up and in the case, ready to go -- with the case open, so I could visually see and confirm it was there and ready to go. Nice guy, seems like he actually knows how to run a business.
Oh, and from the "it's a small world" department, I told him about the 38k I bought last summer... He said "that sounds like the people I bought an upright bass from last summer." That's because it WAS the same people... So I guess I narrowly beat him to the 38k.
