This Tuba Tuesday the Museum features one of only two double tubas in the Collection: a Carl Lehmann F/BBb tuba, which the Museum believes was played in the Boston Symphony by K Vinyl Smith. Smith started with the Boston Symphony as both tenor and bass trombonist in 1936. After serving in WWII, he returned to the Boston Symphony as principal tubist from 1946 to 1966. Mr. Smith preferred playing F tubas, which back then had problematic low registers, so he experimented with double tubas to help with the lower repertoire.
Carl Lehmann produced brass instruments in Hamburg, Germany circa 1925 to 1944.
This double tuba has four normal rotary valves plus one additional rotor that is almost seven inches long. When activated, this rotor instantly adds the additional lengths to all the valve tubes that are needed to go from the short F length to the much longer BBb length.
https://simonettitubacollection.com/ins ... r/lehmann/