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I play on a yamaha yfb-621 f tuba. can anyone recommend what type of modification I might try for the first valve slide to manipulate it? A slide trigger? how much might a job like this cost? thanks in advance for any advice.

the first valve slide manipulation is one of the positives of the horn to me.with horn on knees,left hand at top of main branch, grip slide between index and middle fingers.while supporting the tuba with left thumb,use wrist motion to move slide. yeah ,i know the dangers of using the phrase "wrist motion" in front of a bunch of low brass players, but.....

MikeMason wrote:the first valve slide manipulation is one of the positives of the horn to me.with horn on knees,left hand at top of main branch, grip slide between index and middle fingers.while supporting the tuba with left thumb,use wrist motion to move slide. yeah ,i know the dangers of using the phrase "wrist motion" in front of a bunch of low brass players, but.....

It's easy enough to put a ring and a movement limiter on the slide for less than the cost of designing and fabricating a trigger.

I have found that my 621 does not need those manipulations when I choose a reasonable mouthpiece for it. The only questionable note is the high G, but in practice it's usually in tune, so it must not be that hard to manage.

By the way, was that your Holton with the new valves at BBC?

Rick "who was there getting a couple of braces soldered down" Denney

Fred Greene (LA Freelancer) uses the YFB621 and he has an interesting little gizmo on his main tuning slide... it's one of the two-way triggers like Jim Self has on his YFB822, except instead of having linkage to up to near the top bow, Fred's has a little hook on the main slide and he just moves it there. The springs are there to make sure the slide gets back to its original position. He cradles his 621 with his left arm so his left hand ends up by the main slide. If you have short arms, this wouldn't be a good option for you. But if your arms are long enough, he's had great success with this setup.

I have no idea how much this cost him though... he had it made by Robb Stewart near Los Angeles.

Thanks for the info guys. It was very helpful. I don't have to cash for a real expensive mod, so I may go with the ring like you all mentioned.