NY Times article on BIG CARL, the tuba. Watch the VIDEO....

[alexwill]

Derek FENSTERMACHER tuba player in the NJ Symphony, is featured in the VIDEO.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/27/nyreg ... -carl.html" target="_blank

[Tuboxchef]

Thanks for sharing! It was a pleasure playing that instrument, albeit I'm still winded from it.

[bighonkintuba]

Since it came up in the other thread:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=63118" target="_blank

Are the 'valves'/valve tubing really for decoration or are they not working at the moment?

Thanks!

[Matt Walters]

Big Carl was never made with actual valves. If you take off the top valve cap and remove that spring assembly that pushes the finger buttons back up after you push them down, you will see a brass tube passing in one side of each valve casing and out the other. I was trying to figure out how that spring system would work the valve beneath it until I got a look inside and saw there was no valve. It's a giant bugle made as a prop. Big Carl was most likely made by Bohland & Fuchs and is way bigger than the Harvard Besson BBBb. Even the slides were made non-functional.

[Dean E]

60 feet of tubing, according to the article? Show me the numbers, especially when the valves are purely ornamental. Still, nice to get some background and hear the beast.

This is a great opportunity for a fish story. And by the way, while I'm on a rant, which orchestral tubas weigh 30-35 pounds?

[Donn]

60 feet of tubing, according to the article? Show me the numbers, especially when the valves are purely ornamental.

The whole thing is ornamental, so the valves count, they're tubing. [I didn't look, I assume there is extra valve tubing that isn't in the "bugle."]

[Tuboxchef]

And by the way, while I'm on a rant, which orchestral tubas weigh 30-35 pounds?

I get asked this question all the time. And for the record I still haven't weighed my horn. I guessed :-/

[tofu]

And by the way, while I'm on a rant, which orchestral tubas weigh 30-35 pounds?

Not quite 30 lbs but a Besson 994 weighs just under 27 lbs and a Willson 3050 RZ weighs 25.3 lbs.

[Tuboxchef]

Ok, I just (finally) weighed my horn. 25 pounds.

So in the future, I'll say 25-30 pounds. Or 25 pounds average.

May the tuba gods vindicate me of all transgressions...

[Steve Marcus]

FWIW (not much), I believe that what Steve D. calls the fundamental that Derek is playing (he plays a BBb and the Bb above it at 1:05-1:10 in the video) is the 2nd partial (lowest Bb on the piano). The actual fundamental (or facsimile thereof) is heard at 1:55 in the video when Derek uses his "tongue buzz" (or whatever he calls it) and compares the sound to a helicopter.

This could be confirmed by knowing if there is an open F between the two Bb's at 1:05-1:10.

A query replete of supreme dorkiness (to coin a word, with which spellcheck virtually refuses to comply),

Steve

[Tuboxchef]

The best way to describe what it was like to play that horn last Thursday; it is like putting a trombone mouthpiece in a regular tuba. The receiver had to have an adapter to fit a regular mouthpiece, so in reality, I couldn't even hit the fundamental because it wasn't possible. I had to fake it