Posted by Rick Denney on February 02, 2004 at 13:10:19:
In Reply to: Re: The all important Army Band posted by Art H on February 01, 2004 at 23:57:07:
Art, that frankentuba was made from the outer branches of an otherwise wrecked BB-345, a 2165 bell, and the valve body from the tuba that we have all admired in pictures but which apparently did not have manageable intonation. The 2165 bell is a copy of the Holton bell as I recall, and it surely fits perfectly. But I think all the parts were originally intended to go together pretty much as Albert assembled it. Thus, it's not really that much of a frankentuba, except that the valve branches are shortened to CC lengths. As a BBb, the intonation seemed quite good to me, and it really makes the sound. It's warm and fun to play, with an open feel and what seemed to me a good scale. But I think my original BB-345 is more responsive.
By the way, it was a pleasure to meet you at the reading session, and from your comments I now know why you wanted a toot on my Holton. I'm sorry I had to bug out early which prevented that. Given how the "reading" session went, we should have taken our instruments into another room and entertained ourselves, heh, heh.
Rick "who liked a number of BBb tubas at the conference but who still likes the one he owns best" Denney