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Hello!

Some time ago I bought this tuba on Ebay.

It´s a Eb.

It is very light, small, and has a very nice sound in a upper register.

It is very hard to play in tune with this instrument.

I use the 4th valve slide all the way out and still the F with the 4th valve is high.

The other slides need to be a little out too except the second valve slide.

The Main slide has that strange design.

My question is:

Do you think it is possible this tuba was a F adapted into a Eb?

Thank you.

A very odd looking thing.

Yeah, the leadpipe almost looks like it was extended.

My eye was mostly caught to the bottom of the instrument. It seems as though there is some "excessive wrapping" of the main slide, as though extra tubing was added, which would support your hypothesis that it is an F tuba converted to an Eb tuba.

Another thing, the bell section seems extremely large and long. It seems out of place. When I look at the body of the instrument, I definitely expect a much smaller and shorter bell. I don't know if that could have something to do with the intonation...

I dont kow the age.

But it looks very good. No dings and such.

There is no brand name on it.

Seems reasonable -- the overall proportions do look similar (not identical, but close) to this instrument:

http://www.amati-denak.cz/english/produ ... b_641g.htm

Kevin Hendrick wrote:Seems reasonable -- the overall proportions do look similar (not identical, but close) to this instrument:

http://www.amati-denak.cz/english/produ ... b_641g.htm

Looks like that might be it... the "unknown" instrument has almost the same characteristics as the Amati except for the extra tube wrapping at the bottom (which is probably where it was altered from F to E flat).

It sure looks like it could well be an extension of an F tuba. That extra loop in the tuning slide is found on a lot of french horns from the same period as your tuba seems to be. Seems the right length too. Only difference is that with the horns you can normally replace it with a normal slide to put it back in F. The very long sleeves on the valve slides seem to point to an extension too.

Pulling slides out is no big deal... as long as you can pull them FAR enough. If it has a nice sound, you might try to get a "normal" tuning slide made for it, and see how it does as an F. You can always use alternate fingerings for Eb. Just use the 2nd when you use the 4th, for example. If you don't like it, there may be someone out there who's interested in an F/Eb.

When I first got an F, it was 5 valves, and until I got comfortable with F fingerings if I'd panic in a performance I just hit 5 and play it like an Eb.

tubafreaks7 wrote:Could it be high pitch? A=446?

No. I dont think so...

About intonation and sound:

The 5th partial is very very low. I have to use valves 1 & 2.

all intonation is problematic.

The sound is very warm in medium and high range. Low range is kind of a poor sound. thin.

But I'm used to play BBb. I dont know if thats normal in a small tuba...