Posted by Rick Denney on December 27, 2001 at 12:23:59:
In Reply to: 5th valve on your 4th posted by Patrick on December 21, 2001 at 19:17:31:
The most recent Rusk-converted York that I played about a month ago at Fedderly's had a dependant fifth valve. The explanation was that there was no room for a conventional fifth valve in the downstream main bugle, and David apparently didn't want it in the leadpipe. With the sole exception of the note that Klaus mentioned (which is fine as 2-4 on my one five-valve tuba), it should work fine if properly designed.
Of course, that "if properly designed" bit is critical and hard to define. Open wrapped tubing isn't always best, so it's hard to tell by looking which is better. The Yamaha Eb that Jay mentioned may also not be the best example of the approach. Let's be careful not to judge the approach based on the execution of a single instrument.
I'd love to report that the York I tried out was this or that, but I'm just not a good enough player to be able to discern such subtleties. I thought the instrument played beautifully, but I don't know if that is because of or in spite of the fifth-valve arrangement.
Rick "who thinks all valve arrangements compromise something or other" Denney