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Just a suggestion... can't you buy a new 5th tuning slide and have it cut?

My question is how do you use it? The "long whole step" T valve is obvious with 4th valve and some other combinations, but how do you use the "short whole step" valve? To get 2-4 or 3-4 in tune?

No intonation quirks from adding so much (@ 27 inches)cylindrical tubing? If not, I might have to look into one of those, although it would be hard to beat my Besson for the intonation perfection of a 3-valve comp, since I don't need to grovel in the subbasement. My 7th partial is even usable without lipping, so I get to play top space Gb and G as 1 & 2 respectively, instead of 12 or 3 and 23.

Jonathantuba wrote:I am pleased to hear that rotary valve tubas are now being accepted in band contests!

Oh, he didn't SAY it was accepted, just that he played it, anyway!

Scooby Tuba wrote:

iiipopes wrote:since I don't need to grovel in the subbasement.

If you're groveling, you're doin' it wrong! Don't grovel, ROAR!

Please, we are a civilized lot, after all, aren't we?

Mike Johnson wrote:

Jonathantuba wrote:

Mike Johnson wrote:I recently did a band contest with a Neptune in BBb!

I am pleased to hear that rotary valve tubas are now being accepted in band contests!

Medical dispensation fron a back problem!!

Please explain how the Neptune, being larger than some other tubas, worked for a medical dispensation, when I turn my orchestra chair 45 degrees counter-clockwise (anti-clockwise), and had the angle of my leadpipe altered so I can put the tuba on the chair and, when necessary, rest my right elbow on the back of the chair so I can sit up straight and not have any weight or pressure anywhere?

Mike,is your Neptune indeed rotary.they do make them both ways...

I forgot to mention, in my signature, my Besson is a 3-valve, so it did not occur to me the back strain from reaching around for the 4th valve of a 3+1 setup. Check out the Mr. Tuba website. He has had M-W develop a line of tubas that not only sound great, but are ergonomically much better and more compact than the Besson. There are comparative articles on our neighbors, TubaNews.

You're right. I can't stand the reach around a Besson 4-valve, either; but oh, do I enjoy my 3-valve!

Mike Johnson wrote:

Jonathantuba wrote: Mike,
I suppose the problem is reaching that 4th valve. I found I had a backache from twisting to do so the last time I played a Besson BBb and now refuse if a band asks - but I am willing to play the BBb bass part on my Neptune.

That how I feel. I don't mind the older tallBBb, but the newer squat version is a mare! I'm 6'2" and find it a problem, anyone shorter must really struggle or be too young to have back trouble.
M

Does anyone use a Besson 993 (or whatever the model number is of the BBb equivalent of the 983) in brass bands? It seems to me that it would be more acceptable for someone who doesn't want that 4th valve reach around than a rotary horn. Then again, I don't think that these horns were very popular anywhere.

There is a 993 for sale right now at Baltimore Brass:
http://www.baltimorebrass.net/index.php?cat=5#used
http://www.baltimorebrass.net/images/in ... son993.jpg

Unfortunately, the 993's that I've seen were produced when Boosey's quality control had finally made it into the sewer. Unlike the 983 Eb (which is a very nice instrument if you can find a "good one"), I found the bottom end of the 993 to be quite a bit stuffier than the old 3+1 Besson "New Standard" heavy-tank-of-an-ergonomic-nitghtmare tuba.