Re: Old Obscure Tuba


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Posted by Norm Pearson on April 11, 2002 at 09:42:28:

In Reply to: Old Obscure Tuba posted by Dan Randolph on April 10, 2002 at 16:39:54:

Dan,
I was at the conference and actually saved the old schedule! Ivan Hamond and Jim Self gave the lecture you are referring to. They both had a very keen interest in developing a double tuba at that time and Mr. Hammond had one built for him by Alexander. It was/is based on the Alexander f tuba and has a set of double rotors and a large switch valve that put the tuba in CC (or BBb?). I missed the lecture but I had a chance to talk to Mr. Hammond at length and listen to him play the instrument. It was a very good Alex f tuba made unusable because of the heavy valves. Also the low side of the tuba was very stuffy and hard to center, as bad as a normal Alex f. All it did was make the fingerings easier from low C to pedal F.

From what I understand Alexander will still make one if you want. Unless they have done a great deal of R&D it would be a waste of money, however.

FWIW Tommy Johnson had a compensating-double tuba made for him based on a Yamaha 822. I haven’t played it yet but he is very exited about it and said it plays great.



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