Posted by DC on December 04, 2002 at 21:59:19:
In Reply to: F to Eb posted by Dan Schultz on December 04, 2002 at 17:11:31:
I've seen B flat slides for CC tubas. Mirafone used to make one that inserted into the tuning slide of the CC tuba added enought length to put the horn into the key of B flat. I knew of one fellow who played one this way for a time, however he eventually just learned the CC fingerings becuase the horn played better in the original key of CC, as made. If you can find an affordable F tuba you could have a good repair technician make an extra long tuning slide to put the instrument in E flat. That way you would not need to alter the horn and could play it in F if desired. (as others as pointed out you may also need to add pipe to some of the other slides if they can not be pulled far enough out) Even though this can be done, the horn may still not play as well as a good E flat. Another idea is to take a F tuba that has a flat whole step fifth vavle and have it shortened to make a regular whole step. When the vavle is down you would have an E flat tuba! On a rotary valved tuba it may be possible to reverse the vavle so that the horn is in E flat when you don't push the lever, and in F when you do. This way the vavle will function as a reducing vavle. Of course the other slides will have to be Pulled to be in tuned in E flat. Even though it's fun to think about such possibilites, I think that for musical purposes you will probably be better off with a good E flat than a modified F. HTH.