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York was innovative, but yeah this didn't catch on...

Fixed bell. Wow


Reminds me of the story that Sousa when Conn adapted his beloved raincoat hers to bell front, he wouldn't let the use his name, so they had to call them "wonderphones"

- Miraphone "Presto" linkages

- Martin fiberglass body tubas

- Willson innovations (for better or worse)

- tubas that use rubber bands as an integral part of the valve machine

BBb tubas with conical valve blocks (thanks to @TheBerlinerTuba)

You can’t say that they didn’t try on those Martin/Reynolds/Richards fiberglass tubas! Marketed several ways…

DEG travel tuba

Various manufacturers sold a bunch of them, but those three quarter convertible things were suck tubas...at least, for marching...

King, DEG, Meinl-Weston, Besson, probably others...

I wish these had caught on, mostly to see how Bloke would have come up with hard cases for them.



More info on these here, but try guessing what they really did before you click.

http://presurfer.blogspot.com/2015/03/t ... tubas.html

The Besson Enharmonic. Developed to compete, but not run afoul of, the Boosey/Blaikley patent compensating system that is the standard. when Besson & B&H merged, the compensating system, if not superior, it was at least fully developed and weighed less. So the Enharmonic was mothballed. As far as I can tell, the Enharmonic was made in BBb, Eb, & Euph.

The Bellophone?

The Kuhlohorn or slide helicon?

https://wmic.net/tuba-slide-ernest-david/

bloke wrote: ↑Fri Jun 21, 2024 5:31 pmVarious manufacturers sold a bunch of them, but those three quarter convertible things were suck tubas...at least, for marching...

I learned to play on a Yamaha 3/4 convertible. I wound up playing it as if it were a lefty contra after one year because of how much of a (literal) pain it was to play it normally.

104 ?

The King pit tuba is a good answer.

The Courturier conical bore instruments might be another candidate. Speaking of...

five-spatulas-on-the-right-hand Alex C tubas

bloke wrote: ↑Mon Jun 24, 2024 11:25 am five-spatulas-on-the-right-hand Alex C tubas

The birth defect demographic just didn't take off like they expected it to!

bloke wrote: ↑Mon Jun 24, 2024 9:37 am104 ?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Trying to think back about 25 years at this point. I was able to find a video and the 104 appears to be on the left shoulder

Tubas with interchangeable bells. From the bottom area where it connects, not where the bell front/Recording bell tuba would.

A concert tuba in the key of GG

The Brute Squad wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2024 8:31 am

bloke wrote: ↑Mon Jun 24, 2024 9:37 am104 ?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Trying to think back about 25 years at this point. I was able to find a video and the 104 appears to be on the left shoulder

Played one of these for 4 years in high school marching band. They were certainly....a thing. It would have made sense to me if our band director had bought them to be for both marching and concert band, but the school owned other tubas for concert band. So we never even used the conversion feature on the 104. They were just undersized contras with awkward wrist positioning. But yes, they did sit on our left shoulders.

hrender wrote:

That is dr fredrick young. He engineered that tuba himself. I had a lesson with him and that tuba in 2001. Also attended a masterclass he gave for our studio. That's a true double tuba. I cant remember for sure, but I believe the bell is detachable and there is also a forward facing one for it. I wish I had not declined his offer to take me on as a student. I missed out on so much knowledge.

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