The only thing that looks wrong to me is the length of the 2nd valve slide and I wonder if that might be a replacement ... we shall see within a week or so I hope.
Re: 3 valve tournister tuba in Switzerland
Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 9:37 am
by imperialbari
My estimation of the pitch from the photos is that this tuba is in F, possibly with 3rd valve lowering the pitch 2 full steps. The 2nd valve is much shorter that the one of the BBb tuba you refer to.
Klaus
Re: 3 valve tournister tuba in Switzerland
Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 12:50 pm
by bigtubby
imperialbari wrote:My estimation of the pitch from the photos is that this tuba is in F, possibly with 3rd valve lowering the pitch 2 full steps. The 2nd valve is much shorter that the one of the BBb tuba you refer to.
Klaus
We now have votes for each of the four major tuba keys - except that I've since discounted my BBb guess after noticing that it is missing a loop in the bugle compared with the one shown on the Rugs and Relics site. The glare in photos of the shiny one led me to miscount there.
Again I hope that we will know before too long, eBay's delivery estimates are like Waiting for Godot - each day the estimated delivery date is moved one day into the future.
Re: 3 valve tournister tuba in Switzerland
Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 12:59 pm
by imperialbari
I don't remember seeing documentation for Tornister tubas in any pitch but F or BBb.
Klais
Re: 3 valve tournister tuba in Switzerland
Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2013 9:36 pm
by bigtubby
The tornister has finally arrived! Of course it had to show up while I was in the middle of replacing the timing belt on my buddy's Pininfarina twin cam spider. Mom always said "No desert until you have finished dinner" so it had to wait for a while.
Now for the last hour or so I have been like this guy starting around 0:53:
Except instead of a starving man finding junk food he had stashed earlier, I found an original Cerveny Tornister tuba that is as close to pristine as anything this old could be. Slides all free and five minutes with a bit of valve oil and she plays - beautifully.
Second guessing myself I became convinced that it wasn't in BBb (which is what I wanted) but it is indeed a standard contrabass. As I suspected the second valve slide is too short, possibly the only non-original part on the horn (well, OK the lyre holder screw and lyre are missing). It will play almost in tune all of the way out but I will make a more appropriate slide.
To say that I'm a happy camper would be an understatement. I'm a happy camper.