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After 45ish years of playing baritone & (mostly) trombone I have started playing tuba in my church brass ensemble. I bought the previous tuba player's Conn 3J C tuba.

It seems as if I have reached the point where the intonation of several notes is becoming noticable. Some notes play closer in tune with the alternate fingering.

I tried lipping the notes into tune but I was not able to maintain good sounding notes.

Will slide pulls work with this tuba?

Slide pulls will work for pretty much any tuba I would think. I've seen a fair number of tubas modified with a pole running right to the main tuning slide, though I think the first valve slide is the usual one you see players use. Often they will have it lapped a bit so that it moves easier.

Alternate fingerings are always going to be needed, and if they work better than a slide pull, I'd say use them.

Thanks Sullivan. Some of the alternate fingerings work well, others get closer but still more out of tune than I would prefer.

So I am exploring all possibilities.

Craigtbone wrote:After 45ish years of playing baritone & (mostly) trombone I have started playing tuba in my church brass ensemble. I bought the previous tuba player's Conn 3J C tuba.

It seems as if I have reached the point where the intonation of several notes is becoming noticable. Some notes play closer in tune with the alternate fingering.

I tried lipping the notes into tune but I was not able to maintain good sounding notes.

Will slide pulls work with this tuba?

Looks like the slides for both the 1st and the 3rd valve is easily reached with your left hand on this horn. Are the slides lapped, so you can move them easily? I would try the 1st slide first, since this slide is involved in far more valve combinations than the 3rd. A skilled tuba magician can align and lap the slide for you easily, and then you need some special grease for lubrication - and of course a spit valve to align the pressure/underpressure when you move a slide with the valve not depressed.