The hunt for Wagner tubas

It took a while, but I finally got some quotes on Wagner tubas made from scratch. When I first investigated the issue, the best I could find was "If you have to ask how much it costs, you can't afford it." That's more or less the advice of the Vermont Horns, a group of four horn players who wanted to play Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 in E major. What they wound up doing was borrowing the set from the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

It appears that only the world class orchestras own Wagner tubas, which are then used by whoever plays horn for them that season. Given that the Detroit Symphony plays Bruckner so rarely these days, it's possible that if I assemble a pick-up orchestra, I might be able to borrow their Wagner tubas for almost any time of they year. Nevertheless, and even though the strike is over, I imagine it might be a little awkward to ask for this. Regardless, I want to make sure I have a plan B.

Finally I stumbled upon the page for Osmun Music, sellers of brass instruments. A set of four Wagner tubas (two tenor in B-flat, two bass in F) made by Finke would cost at least $23,600 (including cases) and at least six months. The Hans Hoyer tenor tuba is slightly cheaper while the bass tuba of that brand is more expensive, I'm not sure why. The guy from Osmun Music on the phone told me that the Engelbert Schmid tubas are top-of-the-line; no price quote is given on the website and the only sure thing is that they're more expensive than the other brands.

All four brands offered by Osmun Music are made to order (note also that they don't sell pre-owned Wagner tubas, as they do regular horns, trumpets, trombones, tubas and euphoniums), which means that since I don't play horn myself, I don't know what to ask for. The guy confirmed what I already know about the mouthpieces (that the horn players would use their own horn mouthpieces they already have) but also told me quite a few things I didn't already know, such as that for the order the players can ask for their preferred alloys, whether to lacquer or not, and the number of water keys.

So I'm grateful to Osmun Music, now I don't feel quite as lost in the topic of Wagner tubas.