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Has any one seen this horn on Baltimore Brass? Here is the link.

http://baltimorebrass.net/index.php?cat=5" target="_blank

"Prototype" would have been a more apt description. Clearly, this horn is not dead.

It looks the right age to be one of the quasi-York prototypes that were being worked on in the mid-80s. The bugle is probably completely hand-built, and I would guess this horn spent many of its neonatal days in Bob Tucci's studio.

I had one if those. I bought it in 1990. It was not a bad instrument, just no PT6. It had a really short main tuning slide on the larger side. This made pitch challenging. It's a good size horn but didn't play like one. The high register was as good as an F or Eb tuba but the low register was too. Pretty hard to center down low, YMMV

Tom Gregory wrote:The high register was as good as an F or Eb tuba but the low register was too.

Clever... I had to read that twice.

I believe that is a PT-5 -- which never went into full production, only prototypes. Don't quote me on it though. It was the predecessor to the PT-6. I think the main difference between the 'prototype PT-5', and the PT-6 that we all know, is the PT-5's smaller bottom bow and slightly skinnier bell stack.
I also remember the early, original 'prototype' PT-4 being a tall, skinny tuba. Saw them on a couple of occasions during my high school years.......once during an all-state audition, and another time at music camp that was stationed at a university. Never got to play either one, though. There are pics/descriptions of the original PT-4 and PT-5 in the old Custom Music ads/papers.

Good to know. They are selling it at a good price, if it plays well. I just had no idea what it really was.

Yes it's a PT-5, and only prototypes were made. When I was shopping for my first serious horn I play-tested a used one and like it a lot but settled on a new PT-6 (this was almost 20 years ago).