Posted by Rick Denney on November 01, 2001 at 13:17:52:
In Reply to: Old Conn Questions posted by Michael Boyle on November 01, 2001 at 12:26:04:
No expert me, but I'd suspect that this instrument was custom made and has no model number.
This instrument represents a piece of history, and it could even be the first CC tuba played in an orchestra in the United States. I would want to make sure that any modification could be reversed easily, to preserve the historical authenticity of the instrument. Changing the meaning of the fourth valve could fall into that category, because you'd only have to add about a foot of tubing to the fourth valve, which could probably be done with tuning-slide extensions. But adding a fifth valve would require major surgery.
The pictured high-pitch-to-low-pitch conversion tuning slide is interesting. That would have been a standard part in those days, and it tells me that Helleberg had reason to be able to switch back and forth.
Rick "curious if you could add dates to your story?" Denney