Posted by Carl on June 13, 1999 at 23:49:28:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Thayer Valves posted by Tim on June 13, 1999 at 12:57:31:
Not yet. I spoke to the inventor, Orla Ed Thayer about this. The largest axial flows he's made are the bass-trombone model (something like 13.5mm inner diameter-- I don't remember, just guessing), while F tubas generally begin around 16mm inner diameter.
He HAS, however, installed a set of four axial flow vavles on a euphonium. He says the sound is magnificent!
I once asked Gerhard Meinl of Melton/Meinl-Weston about axials on tubas. He said that tubaists rely on the back-pressure that traditional valves supply. Maybe he's right, but till someone tries, it's pure speculation.
The cost of tooling up to make tuba-sized axials would be enormous. The tolerances are very fine. Also, there seems to be tremendous inertia in the tuba-building world: In Germany, there's a whole system of apprenticeship that usually encourages new builders to design horns just like Grandpa did, thus no innovation. In American factories, they don't innovate 'cuz their chief market is the public school system. Why retool when you can sell last year's (decade's) model?
That being said, I'd love to try axials on a tuba!