5 valve top action?

[TheHatTuba]

Does anybody have a photo of a 5 valve top action horn?

[Bob Kolada]

There used to be a youtube video of Howard Johnson playing a 4+2 top valve F (the 2 were in the front of the horn!); I believe it was said to be a a Mahillion. Lacking that, look for Yamaha 5 valve 321's/381's.

[bobn]

Here's my Yamaha YEB321 with right thumb operated fifth rotary valve. This was added by Ron Partch in Toronto back in the 90's.

The fifth is third valve dependent and doubles the length of the third valve.

It provides many good low range options. This is an great quintet horn!

Bob

[Steve Inman]

YEB381_back_sm.jpg

YEB381_front_sm.jpg

Yamaha YEB-381 Eb -- a factory upgrade to the YEB-321, with a dependent 5th valve, contained within the 4th valve tuning slide. Mine has had a valve lever extension added to allow right hand or left hand thumb actuation, and the normal "long half step" tubing has been extended by Lee Stofer to be a "long whole step" tuning. I use this a lot in my quintet, 12-piece brass choir, and small size church orchestras. It's plenty big enough (sound wise) for civic theater, where it also fits more easily in the pit. It's a good contributor in community band, but is not big enough to be the only tuba in the section. A versatile horn....

Cheers,