Tuba Tuesday: Martin, Handcraft, BB flat tuba, 4 piston, c.1956

[bloke]

At the Met, they have that King double tuba that was made for Bill Bell. I’m 99% sure it’s a turd to play, but it looks cool.

A lot of the stuff in the V&E collection is probably not great in terms of playing, even when new. The tuba is a relatively new instrument and there has been lots of iteration on design.

That being said, there are exceptions.

[bloke]

At the Met, they have that King double tuba that was made for Bill Bell. I’m 99% sure it’s a turd to play, but it looks cool.

A lot of the stuff in the V&E collection is probably not great in terms of playing, even when new. The tuba is a relatively new instrument and there has been lots of iteration on design.

That being said, there are exceptions.

100% on the money, @matt g.
Things such as double tubas are the stuff which should stuff musea.

I'm building a 6-valve B-flat (bass trombone size/bore) cimbasso.
If it ends up sucking, at least it's weird. thus: perhaps (ie. weird/useless) eventually serving as museum fodder.
"In his twilight years, an obnoxious bastard - who went by the pseudonym, "bloke" - stuck together several successful frankentubas (which are still in use, today). This whatchamacallit, however, is one of his two (widely considered to be) failures, and - as he sucked as a person - it seems fitting that one of his suck creations should be on display here in this dark, unnoticed corner of the Sousfonian Institute."

A regular really good King B-flat tuba and/or a regular really good B-flat bass trombone and/or a really good Miraphone 186...
Those belong in the hands of working musicians, busy/joyful amateurs, or promising/careful/mature-behaving students (who worked enough hours at some job or saved up enough money to buy them)...and - likely - sold to the highest bigger (unless someone really needs a tax deduction).

OK...a worn-out-valves version of any of those could be displayed (though not really interesting/rare), but could likely better serve as parts to keep other same-model instruments going.

Here (as an example) appears to be an Alexander C tuba in pretty good (could be better, but whatever...) shape, which I could imagine being sold to an Alex-loving professional or enthusiastic student - EITHER who would offer it a great deal of playing time, and would make a great deal of music with it...and look at all that space to load it up with additional (hopefully: genuine Alex) rotors.