TubaForum.net

- length is halfway between bass and contrabass
- plays in sharp and flat keys with equal ease and difficulty
- band versions can be built in d-flat and orchestra versions can be built in C sharp

I think you solved everything!

A D-flat tuba would be best for flat keys (band) while the C# tuba would be best for sharp keys (orchestra). If you had both, you could do everything!

Also...
They should be built of carbon fiber...you know: because

arpthark wrote: ↑Sat Apr 20, 2024 8:55 am A D-flat tuba would be best for flat keys (band) while the C# tuba would be best for sharp keys (orchestra). If you had both, you could do everything!

I think you might be able to get away with one tuba if you had separate D flat and C sharp tuning slides.

Side Note: Some Baroque flute makers felt strongly that E flat and D sharp were not the same note. Remember, this was back before equal temperament. Their instruments came with separate keys to cover holes that were in (slightly) different positions on the length of the instrument.

MikeS wrote: ↑Sat Apr 20, 2024 11:23 am

arpthark wrote: ↑Sat Apr 20, 2024 8:55 am A D-flat tuba would be best for flat keys (band) while the C# tuba would be best for sharp keys (orchestra). If you had both, you could do everything!

I think you might be able to get away with one tuba if you had separate D flat and C sharp tuning slides.

Side Note: Some Baroque flute makers felt strongly that E flat and D sharp were not the same note. Remember, this was back before equal temperament. Their instruments came with separate keys to cover holes that were in (slightly) different positions on the length of the instrument.

The tuba version solves all of that, because the tuba's tuning of any-pitch-in-particular is - at any moment, in particular - all over the map.
Also, when someone calls us out on being out-of-tune, we can explain to them that our instrument is "mouthpiece-sensitive".

bloke wrote: ↑Sat Apr 20, 2024 10:08 am Also...
They should be built of carbon fiber...you know: because

I am not a fan of Yammy instruments, but if I could get my hands on one of the carbon fiber prototypes that were used at Disney....

Ideal for circus marches, which we all play every day . . .

Seems like a Db/CC tuba would be something pretty easy to pull off.

LeMark wrote: ↑Sat Apr 20, 2024 1:50 pm Seems like a Db/CC tuba would be something pretty easy to pull off.

You know I've messed around with extending B-flat to A and extending C to B...

Why?

to find out what it's like, and to not just assume/accept that "tubas are built in these lengths only"...

... but yeah, I'm just joking around in this thread.

I've always wondered why F/E or Eb/D wasn't a thing

LeMark wrote: ↑Sat Apr 20, 2024 6:01 pm I've always wondered why F/E or Eb/D wasn't a thing

Lengthening the model 98 to A works out really quite well. I spent a little time working on Fountains with that temporary setup. Realize that the drone at the beginning involves an open e, and a fourth valve b and a fourth valve low E.
Most of the other jazz is in sharp modes or sharp arpeggios, and there tends to be fewer buttons mashed.
Playing the Ride is equivalent to playing it in C major on a B flat tuba.

My community orchestra played “Fesitval Overture in the National Air” by Dudley Buck, and the tuba part was in D (!) with a note to “write to JW Pepper for a D crook for the helicon”. So apparently this really was once a thing?

"Unironically", as the kids say these days, there was someone who developed what he called a Db "baritone" trombone. It was really somewhere between alto and tenor, so I'm not sure what voice that would work out to, but I'm pretty sure it's not baritone. If I remember right, it may have been more correctly described as a double valve contralto trombone. Anyway, he was drummed out of the tbone forum, and came back again later with better ideas.

Yahnay-san wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2024 5:43 am My community orchestra played “Fesitval Overture in the National Air” by Dudley Buck, and the tuba part was in D (!) with a note to “write to JW Pepper for a D crook for the helicon”. So apparently this really was once a thing?

Roger Bobo was ready…

http://wwwtemp.rogerbobo.com/instruments/d_tuba.shtml

My thought is a 'dual key' tuba. Set the tuba in CC (or BBb) with an ASCENDING valve (DD or CC). This makes the "bad" notes on the lower tuba, in the "good" range on the higher one (I can be more specific. If you are interested, email me). Also, the very lowest notes (1-2-3-4-5 and 2-3-4-5) 2nd valve and open respectively. This actually works; I have one. It is built on a Gronitz PCM. I have used it many times. The reasons it is not my main tuba are: 1 - it is too small for the large orchestra works, and 2 - it needs a few tweaks (that I can identify), and I have been unable to find someone who will take on the project.

I don't like the PCM (at least, not the non-adulterated version), but list five (ten?) works for which it's too small.

I've probably been making a whole bunch of poor decisions.