funny how

[eupher61]

a 4 valve F tuba gets panned and jeered at, but a 3 valve Eb seems to be a treasure. I'm not knocking anything, just noticing. And I'm not afraid to speak my mind.

[Bob Kolada]

I don't jeer at either. 3 valve Eb's are more common in the US, but a 4 valve F, especially with a two tone third and a second valve kicker, is pretty close to chromatic and useful for most things American tubists use an F for.

[Rick Denney]

I've owned a 4-valve F tuba. It wasn't a bad instrument on and above the staff, but it got a bit oinky below the staff. I'd probably have a better impression of that low range now than I did then.

But I found I could not use it for quintet literature, because it just didn't provide enough options for playing low. It did not have good false tones.

Maybe not too many people would consider an Eb three-banger for quintet literature, and maybe if they did, they would pick one that had good false tones. I'd bet there are more old Eb tubas with good false tones than there are 4-valve F tubas with good false tones.

Rick "who'd like to be able to play a low Bb without a six-inch pull" Denney

[PMeuph]

I wonder if the real value of the 3-valve EEb over the 4-valve F tuba is that it is so much cheaper. A 3-valve EEb tuba is much cheaper and much more easy to find than a 4-valve F tuba. Anecdotally, I have only noticed 3 or 4 F tubas on here in the past year and they were all at least $1000. Some of the EEb tubas available cost around $500.

[Bass Flatulance]

Eb is for us real folk and F is for the high and mighty

[Rick Denney]

I wonder if the real value of the 3-valve EEb over the 4-valve F tuba is that it is so much cheaper. A 3-valve EEb tuba is much cheaper and much more easy to find than a 4-valve F tuba. Anecdotally, I have only noticed 3 or 4 F tubas on here in the past year and they were all at least $1000. Some of the EEb tubas available cost around $500.

True. The 4-valve F tuba I owned cost a thousand bucks when I bought it, and that was 25 years ago. The 5 and 6-valve F tubas I've bought since then cost a lot more, but the most I've spent is $4000. I usually buy used, but my Yamaha F tuba was a new demo model. But it was its first year--still reasonably priced.

But it's entirely possible to find three-valve Eb tubas of ancient vintage (or of peashooter dimensions) for only a few hundred dollars.

Rick "who got what he paid for" Denney

[Rick Denney]

Eb is for us real folk and F is for the high and mighty

I imagine my own playing in the context of what you wrote, and I just giggle.

I bought into F tubas because an F tuba came my way that was better than any Eb tuba I could afford. I did not want a bell-front three-banger for the application I intended (mostly for orchestra, even if it was a second-rate amateur orchestra).

A three-valve Monster Eb Bass (Conn, York--whatever) would not have met my needs. (And certainly not a sousaphone or a helicon.) Even a really good, old 4-valve Eb tuba (or compensating Eb tuba as an alternative) would have cost more than the used F tuba that I did buy. But a modern, high-end Eb tuba costs every bit as much as a comparable F tuba, and it has as many valves, too (unless it has compensating valves, of course).

Rick "who paid more for his best two Bb tubas than any of his F tubas" Denney

[Bob Kolada]

Joe, how's the intonation on that thing? My broken shoulders are at odds with my joy of playing sousie.

[Bob Kolada]

Dillon Music had a tall 5 valve one for a while for under 2000. Interesting but I really don't like super tall bells.

[eupher61]

That horn that was at Dillon's had me really, really interested. I really don't need it, or have room for it, but I wanted it.

[J.c. Sherman]

A fellow Eb buddy of mine has a Reynolds smoke-stack Eb... he adores it.