Posted by Joseph Felton on April 09, 1999 at 11:11:16:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Compensating/non-compensating?! posted by chuck koontz on April 08, 1999 at 02:10:24:
I've been sitting on this one for a while hoping that someone more knowledgable than myself might volunteer some information. This is my understanding of the situation.. let it be known that any information provided is subject to error although is 100% accurate to the best of my knowledge. Said information is not Y2K compliant.
I have heard of one example of a double tuba. It is owned by Dr. Jerry Young. (Not absolutely certain of first name. Also be aware that there is more than one Dr. Young in the tuba world.) Dr. Young is a chemist or physicist or something along those lines but also happens to enjoy playing tuba as a hobby. It is my understanding that Dr. Young used to be very very active on the T/E email discussion list and that he possessed a *lot* of eccentric ideas regarding how a tuba should be designed among other things. Alexander no longer mass produces tubas but if you give them enough money (I emphasize here.. a *lot*) they will build you a tuba and modify it until you are happy with it. It is my understanding that Dr. Young had a double tuba built by Alexander. It is pitched in BBb and EE-natural below the BBb. Dr. Young has a web page that has a picture of this horn. It is very large and really does take two hands to play because of the large number of valves it possesses. Dr. Young also developed a mouthpiece
design based on a french horn mouthpiece. I believe it was mass produced for a short while but was never met with any enthusiasm. You may be able to find a link to Dr. Youngs web page off the T/E discussion list web page if someone here doesn't volunteer it. Dr. Youngs primary concern seemed to be creating an instrument that would always be in tune. It is my very humble opinion that what he ultimately created is more work than it is worth. Intonation is only relative to other people. And pitch is very bendable and most horns are close enough that if you have a good ear you run little chance of being limited by your horn.
Just my two cents.. if anyone has any corrections of addendums to this *please* share them.
cheers!
joseph