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I have been looking through the 1976 Alexander catalog and found some interesting references to models that I hadn't heard of before.

Here is a link to the catalog. Tubas begin on page 12 of the PDF (page 11 of the catalog).

Interesting is the Model 159 in CC -- a "moderne kleine C-tuba," modern small CC tuba. It has the same bore as the F tubas (18.5mm / .728") with a 14" bell. Here it is in the F tuba lineup:



I wonder if this was a response to the Miraphone 184's popularity around that time (Johnson/Bobo/LA, etc.)?

There are also some descriptors of double tubas in F/CC or F/BBb that were available to order, as well as the 168, which had an interesting layout. 3+2, with the right hand valves being one, one-half, and two steps, (essentially 1, 2, and 23 length) and the left hand being 2.5 steps and one-half steps (essentially a 4th valve length and another second valve).

Fingering chart was also included with the Vienna-system F, which I had (have?) an original copy of somewhere from when I owned my 3+3 Alex... good memories.

When did the 173 come about? It's not in this catalog.

Dave Kirk owns one of those C tubas which is sort of interpolated from the F tuba, and he describes it as "useful". He brought it up here along with some of his other instruments - on one of his trips up here - and I did some work on it. It isn't bad. It's a little less blatant than a 184 Miraphone. Perhaps it's something I would compare to 185, but (more accurately) it is self-defining.

They're certainly not completely similar, but I suspect he uses that instrument in the same ways that I use the compact Holton B-flat that I built from myself. A smaller contrabass instrument that's the size of an F tuba is going to offer more potential punch than an F instrument, due to the longer bugle and everything, but I'm not stating anything that others don't already understand.

The 173 is a 163 bugle with a short, US-style leadpipe into a smaller bore rotor section that is next to the player's hand with the slides pointing away from the player's hand. They had string linkage with the levers almost on top of the valves. It was a good tuba, but sounded to me like a King 2341 with a clipped-off bell flare. The pitch was very good for an Alex. The two I got to play semi-regularly were in the famed Tuba Room at Bob Giardinelli's shop in Manhattan between 1986 and 1988. I do not know how long they had been on display nor whether it was a new model at that time. I have never seen any other 173 Alex tubas in the wild.

the elephant wrote: ↑Fri Mar 21, 2025 10:27 am The 173 is a 163 bugle with a short, US-style leadpipe into a smaller bore rotor section that is next to the player's hand with the slides pointing away from the player's hand. They had string linkage with the levers almost on top of the valves. It was a good tuba, but sounded to me like a King 2341 with a clipped-off bell flare. The pitch was very good for an Alex. The two I got to play semi-regularly were in the famed Tuba Room at Bob Giardinelli's shop in Manhattan between 1986 and 1988. I do not know how long they had been on display nor whether it was a new model at that time. I have never seen any other 173 Alex tubas in the wild.

Did one of those pass through @dp's hands...??

No idea.

I realized I've only owned one Alex (basically a stock 163 4v) that wasn't weird. Otherwise, I've had:

- The Vienna-system model 156 F. LH: 125, RH: 364

- My current 157 had the 5th valve tuned to a perfect fourth length, which I extended to be a P5/quint valve

- The oddball 1930s 5-inline 163 in my profile pic

A friend who passed a couple weeks ago had a few tubas, one of which was an Alex F. After we get them evaluated and any fixing done, they will be showing up here in the FS section. I'll be handling the go-between. I don't know what there is in addition to the Alex.