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I think that there is too much of a bore difference to make a double tuba like this practical. It may work for horn, which has a narrow bore anyway, and plays an octave higher in the overtone range, but I have not seen a workable double trumpet or double euphonium.

That, added with the years of building and development of single tubas vs. the singularity of a full double tuba would instantly make me VERY suspicious, and expect a small bore instrument, if it is workable at all.

That being said, I've never played one, and, as with all brass, it is the combination of instrument, mouthpiece, and PLAYER that yields the final result- If it interests you, and your near one, try it.

I would caution, however, in thinking this may be a silver bullet to having two instruments. A CC, built to be a CC, and an F, built to be an F, probably sound better by themselves, and you may just be left with an 8-valve F that is a bitch to carry...

Can someone link the double tuba from Dillons?

I played this horn, and its just as the ad says, great F, less then desirable CC. Its a cool concept, its just a little impractical.

I've heard rumor of a certain local pro commissioning Gronitz to make a CC tuba with a valve to take it up a step to D. Last I heard there were still some bugs to work out, but this seems more feasible than making a CC/F, as the bore size difference between instruments a step apart would be much less. The idea is to make a contrabass that has less intonation quirks... but first they have to work out the intonation quirks...

Actually, the mention of Grontiz reminds me... Didn't they have what they called "a true double tuba" a while back?

I think the real solution is to just buy a Cimbasso with a Deck 3 mouthpiece and a Bobo Tenor Tuba mouthpiece. That'll get'r done...

d

danB wrote:I think the real solution is to just buy a Cimbasso with a Deck 3 mouthpiece and a Bobo Tenor Tuba mouthpiece. That'll get'r done...

Now now... you're just going to get Bob started...

It's important to note that compensating 4'valvers (bessons, yamahas, etc.) are all compensating double tubas, either Eb/BBb or BBb/FFF. There were F/CC and CC/GGG instruments from Besson as well.

Yamaha made a variant of the YFB-821 (whatever the bob F is) that was a double with a very large change rotor - similar to some Lidl double horns.

Alexander made some compensating F/CC compensating and full double instruments. Nowhere near as good as the regular Fs.

J.c.S.

I think I saw that thing at Tuba Exchange, F/BBb double.

J.c.S.

Onebaplayer wrote:I've heard rumor of a certain local pro commissioning Gronitz to make a CC tuba with a valve to take it up a step to D. Last I heard there were still some bugs to work out,

I´ve played this tuba. It´s not a double tuba, but rather a PCM CC tuba cut to D, and the 5th valve is a whole step valve to put the tuba back down into CC. Like some double horns that can stand in either F or Bb, this tuba can stand in C or D. The idea was that a low D, ordinarily played 2-3-4-5, can be played open as a pedal tone, and the low Db can be played with only 2nd valve. The trouble is that not all the open notes are in tune with themselves on each side of the horn (open 5ths are off on the D side I think), and the valve notes get a bit out of tune the more valves you use. I seem to remember it has some adjustable slide to regulate pitch, making it pretty useable. Gronitz is planning to build an improved version.

I remember playing a big Alexander CC tuba years ago that had an adjustable length 5th valve. It could be tuned to a whole step so the tuba could be played in BBb as well as CC. I wasn´t terribly impressed at the time, but I was new to the tuba then, and it was a big one.

In a similar vein, Yamaha makes a Bb trombone with an ascending valve to bring it up to C, called the 350C. The slide is short, as it´s designed to be a light horn for smaller people or a small travel horn, so it has only 5 positions on the Bb side. But, it has 6 positions on the C side, since each position is a little shorter. Thein offers a similar ascending option on their trombones, but they have a standard length slide, so the C side has 8 positions.

Best,

SF

Mike Johnson wrote:
Then there's this baby!!



Mike

That's one big rotor

tubashaman wrote:how was the CC side on the double

I got to play around on Tommy Johnson's double tuba a bit when I was at USC. It sounded best as an F tuba for the most part, using the CC side only for the CC down to the FF. That's how Tommy used it when he played it. The timbre was that of the 821 F; not the same as, say, a Gronitz PCK. It takes some getting used to, fingerwise, but it's a pretty good idea for fluid fingering in that range.

J.c. Sherman wrote:It's important to note that compensating 4'valvers (bessons, yamahas, etc.) are all compensating double tubas, either Eb/BBb or BBb/FFF. There were F/CC and CC/GGG instruments from Besson as well.

Yamaha made a variant of the YFB-821 (whatever the bob F is) that was a double with a very large change rotor - similar to some Lidl double horns.

Alexander made some compensating F/CC compensating and full double instruments. Nowhere near as good as the regular Fs.

J.c.S.

No, the Bessons are NOT double tubas. They are specifically designed as either Eb or BBb with the added tubing recycling thorugh the valve block only for intonation correction for those low notes. Go read the original Blaikley patents. The only reason the configuration is 3+1 is tradition, not to make the 4th valve a "double tuba" valve, and the 983 "Sheridan" eefer is a 4-valve front configuration to boot.

re: Yamaha 350C

Steve, how does that work as a jazz tenor (first position G and second Gb!)?

It´s fine, plays better on the C side than the Bb side, and it´s a student model, but it´s very playable.

SF