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Does anyone (or more accurately, anyone who both reads and posts here ) use a flat 4th valve tuning? I seem to remember reading somewhere that there was an option for a longer 4th valve slide for 2J's but am not sure how popular it was for other horns.

Hello Bob, i do not personally use this type tuning although i have thought about using it. The kIng 2280 Euphonium is made to have an Eb fourth valve tuning (it is a F vlave but you can pull the slide to make it an Eb valve) and it utilizes a third valve kicker so you can tune the 1-3 and 1,2,3 combos rather than use the 4th valve for thoe notes. It is an interesting compromise rather than adding a 5th valve or a compensating system.

On older BBb 186's, with the nested valve circuits, this is not an option. Hell, It's all I can do to get the 4th valve out long enough to be in tune in the conventional manner, as the legs of the 4th valve slide are very short to be able to actually extract and clean/relubricate/drain condensation.

On a positive note, isn't this how the Holton 4-valve Harvey Phillips model tuba is supposed to be set up: the first valve slide accessible so low D is 1+3+pull; and low F 2+4 in tune and 1+4 with only a slight pull?

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I have a Conn 3J CC with the flat 4th valve. I bought the horn used and it didn't come with a shorter slide. It's pretty much an octave key and I like it. 1+4 for low F, 12+4 for low E, 23+4 for low Eb (3rd slide pull), 1234 for low D. However, for the Db right under the staff, I have to resort to using 123 with a 1st slide pull, which is sort of annoying.

bloke wrote:bloke "Please forgive me if I don't really understand the point of the thread." :oops

I am/was curious as to people's thoughts on such a tuning, what horns had it, low register fingerings,....

bloke wrote:Though not the very easiest thing to use, the idea of the 4th valve design on the 186-4U-CC (referring back when the "5U" versions were rarely sold) is to make that slide long and accessible so-as to (with a combination of slide gymastics) make the 4-rotor 186 CC tuba nearly fully chromatic (ex: pulling the 4th slide - rather than the 1st - for "low F", etc.)

The 186/187 Bb thing I play every now and then has the same thing. I've never seen a similar Bb Miraphone with a long 4th slide. 24 B can slot fine, but low E really needs it. It is also far out enough (when 4 is in tune by itself) to push 4 in to play 124. With EVERY slide (1, 2, 3, 4) pulled low low B natural is in tune.