Possible New Tuba Build. I Need Ideas.

[tylerferris1213]

A friend of mine gave me most of a contra-bass bugle. It is complete from the bell to one piston valve. There is nothing after that. From the looks of it, I believe it was originally one of the GG contras with 2 piston valves. I guess the easy thing to do would be to find a valve and the right leadpipe to make a fully functioning contra again. What I'm CONSIDERING, though, is to try making a contra-bass tuba in F (a full octave below a standard F tuba). I know it's a toss-up whether or not this would make a tuba with manageable intonation, but I think I would be fun to try, nonetheless. What do you all think I should do? I'm open to other opinions.

[TheHatTuba]

I am all for experimenting with beater instruments, but this sounds like a ton of work. The valveset is roughly 1=36", 2=18" and 3=57". If you add fourth valve, it will be ~96" (8'). You will also need to add approximately 32" to the bugle... and no guarantee that it will fly high.

[tylerferris1213]

I'm going to get some measurements tomorrow and post them on here to see what you all think. Again, it was just a thought that crossed my mind. I haven't committed to anything yet!

[tylerferris1213]

It's an F.E. Olds & Son Ultratone from Fullerton, California. 16 inch diameter bell. The serial number on the valve is 018641.

What do you all think?

[jon112780]

Is the one remaining valve a whole step?

If so, how's the intonation with the valve down?

If it's decent, find a 3 valve BBb valve set, route it into the horn where the bore matches (fingers crossed), and pull the slides out to the correct lenghts, and you have a sub-contra FF tuba (kind of)...

[tylerferris1213]

I can't test intonation. It literally only goes from the bell to the valve. No first valve or leadpipe. I believe the remaining valve is a half step.

[TheGoyWonder]

The thing to do with that is use the bell on a O-99/4J/2J tuba. I guess the piston and rotor could be used for 4/5th valve conversions on that same line of tubas.