Unusual Tuba Design

[bigtubby]

I've never seen anything like this, looks like a left handed 4V rotary set up to be a bell-front instrument??? Looks to be either production or very well made custom.
https://youtu.be/ZLbeRa7f-fI

[Doug Elliott]

Looks like it was designed by a bari sax player. It totally makes sense.

[bort]

Looks like a gimmick to get attention, and more tips.

[bigtubby]

Looks like a gimmick to get attention, and more tips.

Building (or rebuilding) a tuba to be left handed seems a lot of work for a gimmick, doesn't it? Or should we ask Oren Marshall perhaps?

[bort]

Sure looks to me like his right hand is on the valves

I would expect to see a helicon in eastern Europe, this seems not much easier to hold, and on the street, more attention grabbing. This is on Charles Bridge, the epicenter of tourism in Prague.

[bigtubby]

Sure looks to me like his right hand is on the valves
...

Imagine, if you will, playing that horn with a normal lead pipe (e.g. wrapping around the bell from front to back). Or simply compare the layout of the valve actuating mechanisms with any the thousands of European designed tubas: Cerveny nearly everything; Miraphone nearly everything, etc., etc. - in the world. Perhaps I should have said "upside down" rather than "left handed", this is not a standard tuba with a retrofitted lead pipe.

[roweenie]

From the looks of this old photo, I'd say the design is "nothing new" - a "tornister tuba" design applied to a full-size horn.



The valves on the horn in the video are set a little lower in the bugle, but it's the same principle.

My guess is it was a custom job from the get-go.

[windshieldbug]

Or even earlier, some civil war Over-The-Shoulder tubas came with a curved shank that one could use to change the instrument to a bell-up when the use demanded it... (and still others were adapted that way after the war was over and you weren't marching in front of the troops)

[bigtubby]

From the looks of this old photo, I'd say the design is "nothing new" - a "tornister tuba" design applied to a full-size horn.



The valves on the horn in the video are set a little lower in the bugle, but it's the same principle.

My guess is it was a custom job from the get-go.

Or even earlier, some civil war Over-The-Shoulder tubas came with a curved shank that one could use to change the instrument to a bell-up when the use demanded it... (and still others were adapted that way after the war was over and you weren't marching in front of the troops)

FWIW I own an original Cerveny BBb Tornisertuba and the remains of an OTS saxhorn.

My point was that the instrument in the video I posted was not accomplished by fabricating a lead pipe for an easily available modern tuba (which it appears to be) and not a "gimmick" add-on performed in an hour or so.

As I mentioned above, it appears to me to be either a production instrument or a skillfully designed and constructed custom instrument and not a quickie modification.

Examples of modern (after, say, WWI) tubas with similar layout are welcomed.

[Kirley]

I want one!

[bigtubby]

I want one!

Honestly, that's what I thought. I have a friend who lives in Prague (but is sadly uninterested in the Bohemian contributions to brass instrument design). Will ask him to put out some feelers ...

[imperialbari]

Same man on tuba:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMQXqMQkUYo

[Kirley]

I can’t stop thinking about it!
Hey, Johnathan... : )

Also, that band was tearing it up.

[Wyvern]

It is an interesting concept! Do you see the bell is also removable.

[edsel585960]

Very cool horn.

[bigtubby]

Same man on tuba:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMQXqMQkUYo

Looks like a Cerveny CBB-683 ...