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Here is a lovely Alexander 157 F tuba, likely made in the 1980s or so, in all gold brass. Super excited to be reunited with an Alex F again after about seven years off, back when I had that old Vienna system (3+3) Alex whose sound I fell in love with and then sold to fund something more practical for the playing I was doing then.

I can't seem to find a non-weird Alex, because this one has the sixth valve set up as a flat perfect fourth, meaning you can press that valve and (more or less) use C tuba fingerings in the right hand for the low register, adding the fifth valve (flat half step) as you get lower. It's surprisingly intuitive. Linkages are a nice, quiet ball/socket system that I haven't seen on Alexanders before.

These are so rarely offered for sale, and to find one in gold brass to boot, I am so pleased and excited. Thanks very much to the forum member who reached out to me months ago and ended up selling me this instrument. What a sound!



Next to the 163 (you can more easily see the difference between the gold and yellow brass here):

Wow! What a pair! The Alex tubas are the one make that I’ve never had the chance to play. Hang onto those puppies!

Wow, is right! So much fun! Good for you, that’s quite a find.

Thanks all for the kind comments!

I was playing through a Bach flute partita yesterday and my wife (who usually regards my practicing with some measured stoicism) said something to the effect of, "That tuba sounds really good. None of your other tubas sound like that." The Alexander sound is really special.

To get used to the fingerings in the low range, namely Bb below the staff and lower, I am working on bel canto studies loco and 8vb.

I'll be lugging it to rehearsal tonight just for fun. Maybe a backup recording bell King 2341 in tow (talk about different tubas...)

Sousaswag wrote: ↑Mon Jul 01, 2024 3:18 pm Wow! What a pair! The Alex tubas are the one make that I’ve never had the chance to play. Hang onto those puppies!

For sure. I owned an Alex 163 (formerly Dean Somerville's, US Army Band, ret.) in 2016/2017 and the sound stuck with me. Ended up getting that Vienna Alex from Sam Gnagey and really fell in love with the Alex F sound. Ended up performing the VW on that contraption. It belonged to Sam Greene who played in Cincinnati.

(He also had a Sander CC. Both tubas ended up in Sam Gnagey's possession and were in an enormous wooden trunk that custom-fit both of the horns. I couldn't even fit it in the back seat of my car. I ultimately passed on the Sander, which had a two-step (2-3 combo) fourth valve. You occasionally see it lurking for sale, with a lot of (repaired?) cracks in the outer bows.)

The Vienna Alex was really sweet but this one has about 98% of that same sound with a much more friendly setup. I think the bell on the newer Alex has a bit more pancake.

As a lot of you probably know, I do flip tubas, trombones and mouthpieces and things like that, but I didn't buy any of my current setup (Piggy, Alex 163, Alex 157) with the intention of flipping. These are all tubas for which I have waited around for 8 years for prices, my finances, work schedule and ability to travel to all align. It pays to be patient! Well, in this case, I guess it costs three tubas' worth of money to be patient.

It's really great to get things that we've been seeking...particularly when (and you're not to that point, yet, I'm assuming) we eventually make the decision that they BOTH are what we've been seeking AND they worked out for us.

I had the best C tuba that I'd ever played, and (risking coming off as boasting) I've never heard a bad live recording of me playing it...but it just wasn't quite what I really wanted...I'd played B-flats (before) with "that sound", but either they were just too much effort or their intonation was too wonky...
...my F tuba...Luxuriously, it's never been even a hint of a question about it.

Good luck to you with that group of three.

Congratulations! The only CC tuba that I've ever gotten truly excited about after a test play was/is an Alex 163. I imagine the F is just as delightful!

Wow congratulations! There is nothing like an Alex and no Alex is the same as the next one!

A good idea to never let me near one of those, because it could send me on yet another hunt. Although -- many years ago in the brass band someone was playing an Alex F on the Eb part. His intonation was absolutely atrocious, and I formed an opinion that "Alex tubas are impossible to play in tune" based on that. I'm sure you would change my opinion if I heard you play yours.

So...

How long until all 6 paddles are on the same side?

At least i assume you would prefer to not have them different... however I have been known to be wrong before.

Mary Ann wrote: ↑Fri Jul 05, 2024 12:03 pm A good idea to never let me near one of those, because it could send me on yet another hunt. Although -- many years ago in the brass band someone was playing an Alex F on the Eb part. His intonation was absolutely atrocious, and I formed an opinion that "Alex tubas are impossible to play in tune" based on that. I'm sure you would change my opinion if I heard you play yours.

This one definitely requires some attention (mostly using 3 instead of 12 and a few other alternates) but no more than any other F tuba I've played. Six valves give lots of options so I really have no excuse!

humBell wrote: ↑Fri Jul 05, 2024 2:43 pm So...

How long until all 6 paddles are on the same side?