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3/4 sounds strange to me. It would more likely be a step and a half.

A 3/4 step valve is a flat half step. Think of it as an other second valve with the slide pulled way out, thats about the right legnth.

It is unusual now, yes. However I have to old Alexander tubas (a CC and an F) that have their fifth valves set up in this maner. The F tuba is a late 50's model, the CC is a late 60's. I have also played a few older Cerveny tubas with this set up. I quite like it, but it is also what I am used to playing right now.

sbring wrote:

Brendan Bohnhorst wrote:A 3/4 step valve is a flat half step. Think of it as an other second valve with the slide pulled way out, thats about the right legnth.

Well, I suppose they how their own tubas are made, but is this not an unusual length for a fifth valve?

Sven

Ta∂ ist standard á het cor simple in Si bemol cum 4 ossia 5 values.

Carolus Shofarimus

Our school's Cerveny has that type of 5th valve (really flat half step). I haven't invested much time into learning its uses. On the rare occasion I play this horn, I only use the 5th valve on low F (245). I can't figure out other uses for it. I am sure it is a valid tuning system or they wouldn't still be using it. I am just not motivated to take the time to learn how to best use it.

If I were in the market for a Cerveny CC (I'm not), I personally would either have the 5th valve tuning slide lengthened to make it a long whole step or opt for the 4 valve version. Most likely the latter would be more realistic since I would purchase the horn solely for quintet where the low refister is not as needed as in orchestral literature.... not that I'm playing much of that these days.

I think a 3/4-tone valve is mainly intended to correct the sharpness of a 123 or 24 fingering, but it can also be useful for a few other notes. See example 1 below for more details:

http://www.geocities.com/galvanized.geo ... valve.html

Perhaps it's a matter of tradition. According to Bevan, the original tuba patented by Wieprecht had a 3/4-tone 5th valve. If you play down the chromatic scale on a 4-valve tuba the first serious intonation problem you encounter is the 123 or 24 combination, so perhaps that is why the 3/4-tone 5th valve was invented. I'm not saying it's the best solution, but it's the oldest and in a way the simplest.