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The 32 is kind of awesome in that it can be a 5V CC with slightly lowered whole step 5th, a two step 5th, or using the first combo and pulling to make the horn in B flat (or a close version). I owned a Bell Model MW with the same configuration and it was a great player in CC B flat. It is also fun when people notice the 'dead' pipe...

johnnytuba wrote:So I CAN play it as a 5 valve CC?

Yes.

The MW 32 is an excellent five-valve CC tuba. All CC tubas can be sort of converted into four-valve BBb tubas, provided that the fifth valve slide can be adjusted to be an exact whole tone, and the other valve slides can be pulled out enough to tune the instrument. I have never heard that the result is a good BBb tuba. The MW32 has a huge adjustment range for the fifth valve slide. I never tried tuning the instrument to BBb, nor do I intend to.

I like my MW 32 tuba a lot. It is nimble, has good (but not perfect) pitch, and has a beautiful tone. It can have a big sound, although the very low range can be stuffy (use warm slow air). These days, I use a Stofer Geib mouthpiece for most work (such as brass quintet), and occasionally a G&W Bayamo if I need more down low, such as for playing in band. [This year, I started using a larger tuba for band.]

Cheers,
Allen

Allen wrote:I have never heard that the result is a good BBb tuba.

The Neptune works amazingly well as a BBb (using the 7/8 5th valve slide). It blows open, has manageable pitch and having tried recording on my H2, there seems no loss of tone. I actually found it worked even better playing the BBb part in a brass band than a good Cerveny Kaiser I had.

I understand the BBb facility was built into the Neptune to allow players to audition in Germany where BBb tuba is often demanded (it would be interesting to hear if anyone ever has done this?)