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I saw the Staatskappelle Dresden last night at Carnegie Hall, excellent concert (Bruckner 8 ).

The tuba player, Jens-Peter Erbe was playing what seemed to be a Kaiser BBb tuba, although it had a horizontal main tuning slide. Don't most Kaiser tubas have vertical tuning slides?

He also had an F tuba with him, and often switched between BBb and F during the piece. Come to think of it, every German orchestra I've seen in the past few years has had this -- switching frequently within the same piece. Doesn't seem to happen nearly as much in US orchestras, but maybe I'm just not seeing enough of the same pieces by different groups.

Any comments on either of these?

If it was Rudolf Meinl Kaiser BBb, they have horizontal tuning slide.

You don't say which Bruckner symphony - the 7th it actually specifies changes from contrabass, to bass tuba between movements, while in the 8th and 9th the large range means change can be desirable.

It was the 8th... Also, it was a silver tuba, and large, but not Rudy 6/4 kind of gigantic. I haven't scoured Youtube for a video yet.

Thanks to a keen TubeNetter... it was the Hirsbrunner kaiser BBb.