Posted by Ola on July 03, 2001 at 17:49:16:
In Reply to: Rotary or Pistons on a PT-6 posted by Matt PT-6 Goosen on July 03, 2001 at 17:17:35:
I've had a little (not too much) experience playing both, and I can assure you: they do sound slightly different. But that is so little that I would consider it almost not an issue if you have two very equal quality instruments at hand.
I am a fairly medium sized guy, and the piston tuba had got the valves placed too far away from the leadpipe for me to play comfortably for a long period of time. The extra strech I had to do was so subtle that I didn't notice it at first, but after playing the instrument for hours a day for a few weeks, my right arm was painful and my back was a mess, and obviously playing became quite painful. That stopped immediately when I gave the tuba back to its owner, so perhaps I'm lucky not to own one. I had no such problems with the rotor version at all.
But if you're big enough, that shouldn't be a problem at all, and I must say that playing quick passages clearly was a lot easier on the piston version.
Ola