TubeNet

Check out these valves...another great article from TheBerlinerTuba!

http://brassandpipes.wordpress.com" target="_blank

Similar but different than the American box valves made by Quinby in the 19th C--as shown on a trombone owned by Steve Dillon:

http://www.robbstewart.com/Restoration/ ... mbone.html" target="_blank

That is really, REALLY cool!

Obviously not the same tuba, but the same maker as this one (which also has cool valves):

http://thevillagetinker.com/J%20Low%20Tuba.htm

So what type of tuba is crying out to be free blowing in the low register and be as quick as a trumpet? The compensated Bb tuba! Imagine a Bb compensator with a regular piston 4th valve and 6 box valves.....dont think I will get much sleep tonight thinking about how good it could be in a brass band.

I don't think I'll sleep for the next year trying to figure out how to play a 4+6 in brass band...

If you scroll down a ways, you will find the explanation of why the B&S 101 tubas (Sonora, Gerhard Schneider etc) look a lot like Alexanders. Apparently an instrument maker named Crönlein left Alexander and went to work for the Hess company in Klingenthal, which later was absorbed into what became B&S. Herr Crönlein brought his designs with him and Hess started producing them, and the rest is history.

That box-valve tuba is some serious horn-dorn.