Amen.Neptune wrote:Having had the pleasure of trying an old British F tuba, I cannot image them providing the sound required in modern orchestras anyway - the one I tried was not that much bigger than a euphonium.
And your history seems most plausible to me. I'm sure I read somewhere that Fletcher was unable to find an F to use in orchestra, and moved to the Eb because of sheer availability.
Only orchestral players used the F, and even within the F category, there were two main branches. The older model was the five-valved uncompensated Barlow F tuba which was just larger than a euphonium. Newer orchestral F's were more typical top-action Blaikley compensators with four valves. Apparently, they were quite different, with the latter much more like the Eb models of the day.
I would expect that orchestra F's were never production items. The predominant usage in British schools was Eb or Bb, and that's what fed usage in brass bands. It would have been an easy business decision to cease production.
Fletcher's big influence was in the design of the Sovereign, with its substantially increase bell size and taper.
Rick "thinking the old Barlow F would appeal more to a euphonium player" Denney
