Hirsbrunner - I get it now - but help

[bigboymusic]

Having had a BB flat 3V compensating HB in my possession for almost a couple months now, I get it. I have always been an Alexander and older rotary MW player. I never questioned whether or not HB's were good or not, but never felt the need to stray. Now that I have played a couple gigs and have had it on my face every day for a few weeks, I wish I had played on them years before. I will definitely have to add a valve or two on it regardless, but I have come to love most everything about it....

Most.....

On this horn, there are dozens of awesome notes...

This does dot include the B flat and A below the staff....

I'm learning how to maneuver around and have put away my PT-48 and found that a good old Bach 18 helps a lot. Other than putting on a 4th and 5th valve so I can 'play around the bugle', any guru tricks for fixing this issue? I have had an eflat that had this problem, and by playing the low E flat on held notes 4&5 (flat whole step 5) the E flat was fine. As a player you just always hear of some of our repair geniuses that can put a dent here and there and breathe magic dust on these beasts to help with weird problems....

Just pumping out the Bflat and A on shorter notes is not bad at all. It is sustained pitches that have no center.

[TheHatTuba]

Every HB tuba I've tried has had this problem to some degree...

[bigboymusic]

I've always heard that CC's were pretty awesome and that you had to really watch the BB flats... The couple HB2 CC's I've played were fantastic, had never played a B flat till seven weeks ago. I love the mid range and even with three valves, the low F and E are rock solid.

[iiipopes]

Like the Besson, from which Peter derived the double-decker compensating rotor version that you have, it is an instrument onto itself. To go adding tubing and valves will only make it more stuffy. For the years I had my Besson 3-valve comp, I continually contemplated adding such items as a dependent long half step 4th valve on the 3rd valve circuit to get Eb below open BBb, with 1+2+3, or a long whole step to get the same with 1+3, etc. But when, after research, I discovered that even Blakely and Boosey, in spite of their patents containing a 4th valve to make sure 1+2+3 wasn't sharp, and because it was so little sharp it could be lipped down, and because E nat and B nat were so rarely called for in the British brass band literature of the time, the 4th valve idea was discarded.

The problem is that there just isn't enough space left in the bugle to weave the tubing into the interior of the bugle due to all the comp loops, unless you want to plumb everything out front or out back and have it exposed to potential damage. Likewise, so many nodes and anti-nodes are affected by running the comp tubing back through the block, that the near pedal notes (Eb down to pedal BBBb), even if you add the tubing, run the risk of being very stuffy or not speaking at all.

The next problem is the cost. If a person has an HB, then it should have HB parts, and they can be very expensive.

I corresponded directly with the company about these tubas a few years ago, thinking I might want one. I was informed that this model was designed to save weight for military bands by purposefully excluding the 4th valve circuit, and the comp loop tubing run accordingly.

The real solution, if the notes just get too stuffy to deal with, is simply to get a conventional 4-valve BBb; the thread about the forumite who took the 3-valve comp block out of one of them and installed a conventional 4-valve block in the same bugle to the contrary notwithstanding.

Bottom line (pun intended): leave the horn for what it is: a really good 3-valve instrument with superior intonation that does well for military and community band work.

Finally, and ironically, on my Besson, it was 2nd ledger line C that was stuffy; but like the OP's tuba, my low F (1+3) and E (1+2+3) were clear, steady, and solid.

[bigboymusic]

One thing I may have not made clear by the term 'center' if pitch...
The horn is not stuffy on any notes, including both B and E using 123. That's the amazing part. The notes in question just have no clear attack point for correct pitch. You can almost bend the A 50/60 cents either way if you try.

[iiipopes]

One thing I may have not made clear by the term 'center' if pitch...
The horn is not stuffy on any notes, including both B and E using 123. That's the amazing part. The notes in question just have no clear attack point for correct pitch. You can almost bend the A 50/60 cents either way if you try.

Count your blessings that it is not stuffy.