Dependent 5th Valve On An F Tuba

[Dan Schultz]

I am not an F tuba player (some might way that I'm not a tuba player at all!)

Please explain the logic/use of a 5th valve that is dependent on the 4th valve on a Meinl F (H Triebener) tuba. Would the horn be more practical with a conventional flat step or 2 - 3 combination valve?

[imperialbari]

I couldn’t find that model in current Meinl online documentation. And I wonder about such model being associated with the name of a recognised professional player.

The old style of German trombone making didn’t come up with good bass trombones for marching, so the use of tubas on the upper octave of marching bass lines is much more common in the German/Czech tradition than in America. Hence even good brands of F tubas like B&S have been seen with down to 3 valves.

A dependent 5th valve always has limited usage, as it cannot be used in combinations which don’t involve the 4th valve. I don’t like the idea. Still one of my F basses, the Wagner tuba, has a dependent 5th valve, which happens to be a long semitone Stellventil. Its slide is long enough to make it adjustable for the pre-adjustments for the odd low note in a part, but impractical for scale passages.

Choosing between a long whole step and a long minor third for a more or less all-purpose F tuba (at least one usable for sight reading band or orchestra type parts) is very easy just by logic.

Is low Bb an important note in the repertory?

Does a long minor third slide in the dependent valve improve the pitch options for a good low Bb?

Is there a quite useful alternative to the long minor third slide in form of adding 2+3 to 4?

Klaus

[Dan Schultz]

I am not an F tuba player (some might way that I'm not a tuba player at all!) Please explain the logic/use of a 5th valve that is dependent on the 4th valve on a Meinl F (H Triebener) tuba. Would the horn be more practical with a conventional flat step or 2 - 3 combination valve?

pfft!

ask your teacher

Teacher??