Posted by Paul Conrad on February 15, 2000 at 00:08:15:
In Reply to: Double Tuba? posted by Tom Caudron on February 14, 2000 at 09:44:45:
I owned a double tuba F/CC 5v years ago that was made by Ivan Hammond (Professor Bowling Green State U. Ohio, retired now). This tuba was made from an excellent old Alex F and had the usual problems with the C side of the horn, but since the F side was so good, you only needed to use the C side for the main low C,B,Bb,A (4th valve notes on the F side), very decent "open" notes on the C side,not so great notes on most Alex F tubas. I don't know what happened to the horn, I had sold it to a player in one of the military bands in the Ohio area around 1983 and heard that the horn had been in a fire and then been repaired. I played the horn again when he was selling it to a student at Cincinnati U., that would have been about 1984,85 and I thought that the horn played better that ever. Sorry that the trail is so old but thought you might want to know that a "good" double tuba did exist at one time. If any one knows where this horn is now, please let me know, I'm currently playing a late 50's era Alex Kaiser BBb and would be interested in knowing the whereabouts of this relic from the past.