Posted by Rick Denney on December 14, 2001 at 13:37:08:
In Reply to: Getzen G-50 Questions posted by Mike I on December 14, 2001 at 13:00:29:
No, it does not really work as well as a BBb as a CC. But it's not much worse.
I know a fellow here who plays in a well-known jazz band. He has a CB-50 that he uses as a BBb. His problem is the tight crook on the fifth-valve slide, and he has replaced that slide with a wide slide, and reworked the other tubes so that it fits. The objective is to make the fifth valve as free blowing as possible.
You have to readjust the positions of the other slides, of course, if you will play it regularly as a BBb.
He wired the fifth valve to be on all the time, and to turn off when he pressed the trigger. This gives him a four-valve BBb tuba that can be directed to play an open-bugle C or low F (or 2nd-valve B and low E) at will. He doesn't much like the sound of the fourth valve on the instrument, and he therefore avoids it using this trick. It's a clever trick.
I have to say that my friend has some crazy notions about what horns are or are not good, so I make no pretensions that what works for him will make any sense at all to others.
Theoretically, any CC tuba with a whole-step fifth could be configured as a BBb, assuming that the fifth isn't too long, and assuming that the resulting BBb bugle tunes the harmonics acceptably.
Rick "who thinks this could work better with a bigger, downstream fifth valve" Denney