My 1950 King Trombonium in its custom-made "baby coffin".

That's where I met him, but you and I didn't meet each other there.😐
I said about ten feet in front of Tommy Johnson and the woodwind quintet when they played that Armand Russell piece. (If you remember, it wasn't even in an auditorium. It was in the same room where instruments were displayed ...

I was privileged to meet him at a T.U.B.A. Conference in Tennessee in 1974, as well as seeing Tommy Johnson and Jim Self. We had a very nice conversation, and he let me play his floor-length King Symphonic tuba. It was surprisingly fun to play. He was such a fine gentleman and was always willing to ...

The most annoying thing for this tuba player is bass trombonists.

First, they *think* they can play the tuba part on their bass trombone and sound like a tuba. We all know they cannot. "Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to ...

bloke wrote: Tue Aug 11, 2026 7:47 am De-tune one of their tuning slides during the break.
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How do you REALLY annoy a tuba player?

Don't tell them which one.

Or you make him sit next to the really sharp bari. sax player at a concert band gig. Same effect.

Here's my experience from working with 7 different school business managers in 3 different towns and school districts: I would get asked by them how we had previously paid for repairs. Every single time, they would answer, "he(/she) (previous business manager) could go to jail for that!". Then we ...

Absolutely yes. School business managers are bean counters. They don't look at the big picture. That's how they were trained. If you only knew the contortions I had to go through just to buy tubas for my school bands... I literally had to compare them to football helmets for one administrator. As ...

I can tell you from experience that schools tend to be that way with most business. Yes, sometimes band directors fail to keep up with their paper work (all too common), but by and large, schools try to hang on to every dollar until they just have to let go - as if they can't do without that extra ...

I had a similar experience when I owned a Mack Brass 421 CC, except it was the E4 (natural) that refused to play with any fingering. I could "squeeze" it out fingering it 4th valve, but the tuning was impossible. Any other combination sounded like I was trying to do a very bad lip trill, and I have ...

High school days - going back to the 1960s. We had 4 Olds fiberglass Sousas and one "50 medals of honor" Besson BBb which I played.

Small college days. at first 4 silver Conn 20K Sousas, then 3 Meinl-Weston (Getzen) Model 11 BBb and one Meinl-Weston Model 30 CC. When I graduated, I bought my own ...

Depends on how many body parts you are missing -- I'm an "it" as of age 45. I think if you are only minus a gall bladder, you're still technically female.


With a second-hand kidney, two replaced shoulders, two replaced knees, 12" of my colon gone, and about to have a pig's heart valve in the ...

Let’s get real. You don’t even really NEED a mouthpiece.


Some don't. I went to high school with a guy who carried a Sousaphone for 4 years and never learned to play it. He just sang through the horn. At least he didn't hurt the band, but he also didn't help. His cornbread wasn't quite done in ...

I had a number of female tuba players when I was teaching, and unlike the guys, every one of them was a very good player. When I first got to my last job some 40 years ago, the band program had a total of 2 tuba players, one in high school and one in jr. high. Of course, the 2nd bands at both levels ...

donn wrote: Sun Jul 19, 2026 12:35 am

Jperry1466 wrote: Sat Jul 18, 2026 9:21 pm I still have it.

Does it play up to pitch, compared to what you usually play?

I checked again (after many years), and it plays between 15-20 cents flatter than my usual mouthpiece. If I push my tuning slide all the way in, it gets a lot closer but still not quite there.

I am very interested in this book.

I got the chance to visit with Dr. Young at a TUBA symposium in the early 1970's, and he explained the theory behind his design. He hated back pressure and kept shaving the throat and bore of his mouthpiece to make it more free-blowing. For me, it was similar to using a 5 gallon bucket for a ...

In June of 1961 I was 10 years old, and my family drove to California to visit relatives and see the sights, Disneyland, Marineland, etc. We drove to El Paso then hit Route 66 somewhere in New Mexico and followed it most of the rest of the trip. The interstates were just beginning construction, so ...

This is the best price I find right now on one of these, but I don't know what "seller is currentlyaway" means. Hopefully he'll be back.
https://reverb.com/item/33022784-denis-wick-classic-tuba-mouthpiece-5l

It's a better price than the one I got through Reverb and would gladly sell to you cheap ...

It broke my heart when he left Kentucky. He had big shoes to fill, following Skip Gray and Rex Conner, but he did it admirably. I'm happy for this move for him.

Unfortuately, the Harbor Freight website doesn't show any rawhide mallets or rawhide hammers, so you may be out of luck, but there are plenty of other toys to choose from.