Happy Birthday Tuba

[Snake Charmer]

One is on display at the Music Instruments Museum in Berlin (Germany), in playable condition. Heiko Triebener had the possibility to play some years ago and was full of praise afterwards. Only the fingereing is a bit unusual for modern taste, but being the first tuba, this should be called traditional...
Valve one and two are on the left hand, valve five (three on the right hand) gives two and a half, i.e. switches from F to CC, valves three and four (one and two on the right hand) are whole-step and half-step when five is pressed. The system was later adopted from the Wiener F-Tuba, which has a third valve added for the left hand, mostly a longer whole-step for the F. (This was AJ's "Brass Accordion").
Roland Szentpali has one in his collection, but this was at least two years ago in need for some repair.
Later some were built by different manufacturers with a slightly larger bell, there are some still around, most of them in private collections.

[bort]

I've been to that museum in Berlin -- highly recommended!