Posted by Mark in Ohio on August 12, 2000 at 02:07:54:
Hey, here's an idea- I'm sure that somebody had tried it, but I have yet to hear about it:
Many of us like rotary valve action.
Many of us like a real short leadpipe, as is the fashion these days.
How about a tuba that has both? There's lotsa .750" bore rotors out there, and plenty of short leadpipes for .750 piston sets. Same can be found for .689" bore stuff. Have any of our expert technicians or historians out there toyed with or heard of of such a configuration? I can't think of an acoustic reason why this couldn't work well.
Could be a whole new trend for Tuba mods!
I read a university study on the web (sorry- no link- still trying to find it again) that blind-tested oodles of trumpet leadpipe lengths & rotary /piston valve configurations. This particular experiment discovered that leadpipe length had the greatest impact upon a player's perception of the response of the instrument. The big difference between rotary-valved european trumpets vs US piston trumpets was leadpipe, bore, & taper, NOT the valves, as folks had thought.
Food for thought, and perhaps innovation
Mark in Ohio