Can I blindly take a 3 valve Eb to a band rehearsal?

[bloke]

Well, you could be my size (instead of bear-sized) and show up with a Mfone 183 and they all think you have a BBb tuba because it is so HUGE.

huge, like this...

[Mary Ann]

I'm skinny but not THAT skinny. That guy needs someone to feed him, yesterday.

[humBell]

Bring all the Martins, and use whichever suits each piece.

[humBell]

PS.

I am grateful others have taken the metaphorical use of the term "blindly" literally so i don't feel the need to.

I don't know. Can you?

Er... take wee old eb to a first rehearsal with a new group?

I look forward to hearing hearing the adventure!
(some Tolkien quote from the hobbit about good easy times passing quickly and boringly, where as challenges at least making a good story)

[bloke]

How comfortable are you with E-flat and reading? When I dived off the C tuba cruise ship into the B-flat tuba vast sea, my overblown estimation of myself was telling me that I wouldn't have any trouble sight-reading passages that involved some velocity, and it would all be just great. What I hadn't admitted to myself was that my B-flat reading ability was still just about where it had been when I was 17-1/2 years old. The first few weeks, the first few pitches that I played on the B-flat tuba - whether I read them, or played them offhand - were valved as C tuba pitches, until I straightened myself out - either fifteen seconds or a minute or two later.
... the most difficult pitch to come to terms with on any new length of tuba, as far as which valves to depress is concerned: C-sharp
the most absurd C-sharp valve combination of all:
1st-valve (E-flat tuba)