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I have owned a four valve and a five valve rotary valve instrument. An Eb with top action valves has me interested enough to seek a few comments from the top action piston people. How do like these instruments?

I have a Besson 983 and though it is front action it is a compensating horn. For me it is wonderful to have the compensating valve set. With the compensating I don't need a 5th valve to have a full chromatic low range. Some folks say that the compensating horns are stuffy, but I personally don't notice it on my tuba. I do notice the stuffiness on my compensating euphonium though.

That's what I'm curious about, the low end with no 5th valve. In other words, the effectiveness of the compensation.

swillafew wrote:That's what I'm curious about, the low end with no 5th valve. In other words, the effectiveness of the compensation.

To me I don't notice any problems with stuffiness or anything else but happy low notes I love the compensating system and don't plan on playing anything else as my primary horn. I've played two other 983's and an older Besson BBb (top action 3+1, but no idea which model or how old) and all of them had the same responses in my opinion YMMV, but this has been my experience with the horns I have played.

This article is about euphs, but all 4-valve compensating horns, whether brass band baritone horns, euphs, Eb tubas, or BBb tubas, (or even the rare F tuba or CC tuba) all work the same way:

http://www.dwerden.com/eu-articles-comp.cfm" target="_blank

Hmmmm

I have limited experience with four valve compensating tubas but I get the impression that it's alright for euphoniums and EEbs but maybe the stuffiness is worse on the BBbs.

There are a few serious orchestral tuba players around who play compensating EEbs but none that I know of who play the BBb equivalent. The BBb is of course widely used in the brass band world; mainly due to strong cultural precedents.
I've only played one Sovereign BBb (Maybe a bad example????) and it felt like it had a rag stuck down it compared to my 1291BBb.

There's been a few times when I've thought that the simpler compensating low register fingerings would be nice - I pull slides a bit in this range.

Regards

Gerard

termite wrote:I've only played one Sovereign BBb (Maybe a bad example????) and it felt like it had a rag stuck down it

That is how I found a Besson 994 I tried, but the older 992 and Imperial do seem rather better. However I don't rate the compensated BBb for use other than in traditional brass band. There are far better BBb out there IMHO.