Mirafone wasn’t the first

[York-aholic]

Mirafone wasn’t the first to offer crooks to change the key of a tuba (those funky CC to BBb slide thingies).

While looking at a 1916-1917 York catalog I see they offered a crook to change their Eb tuba to D (doesn’t say if it’s for their Medium or Monster).

I’m sure there were other manufacturers doing similar.

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[PlayTheTuba]

So there's more than 2 tubas in D Natural out there! Well, assuming it can be tuned to A=440...

Otherwise it could be like Bobo's super F sharp tuba in "G." 2 half steps above a normal F tuba. Or an octave higher than say a Drum and Bugle Corps G (tuba) bugle.

Roger Bobo's Tubas in G and D Blogpost
http://bomaestro.blogspot.com/2021/04/?m=1

[bloke]

It's fun and interesting to drop the pitch of any tuba by a semitone and then to play through familiar passages at their correct pitch levels to discover how it affects them.

[York-aholic]

It's fun and interesting to drop the pitch of any tuba by a semitone and then to play through familiar passages at their correct pitch levels to discover how it affects them.

When I read about the D crook, I thought of you and the extensions you’ve made.

[bloke]

I spent some time working on some pretty difficult excerpts with semitone extensions and playing those excerpts at the correct pitch levels. When was with a tuba in B and another one was with a tuba in A for Fountains of Rome.

Stuff like that is a pretty good mental exercise and a pretty good learning experience. I also believe that I end up playing the excerpts in the regular tuba lengths better than before, because I get more away from the extremely repetitive physical experience and more toward the aural experience.