Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Gronitz double tuba (?)


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Posted by Frederick J. Young on August 13, 2001 at 19:49:19:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Gronitz double tuba (?) posted by saw it back in the '70's on August 12, 2001 at 23:34:35:

In the 40's, 30's and earlier floor models were not so unusual. Usually large people had to set them on stands to make the lead pipe high enough. Many of the large Conns, Yorks and Martins were very awkward to hold on ones lap and old timers still use stands for them. The US service bands and many University bands used the floor model King. So did Paul Lavals band of America. Ron Bishop used to play one about 50 years ago and he was so loud that you could hear him several miles away. The trouble with the King floor models was that the pins on the rotary valves kept breaking during concerts. Everyone would take a spare floor model tuba to the concert and hide it behing the curtains in case it was needed. Eventually that lead to the demise of the floor model King. I cured the breaking pin problem but using hollow pins which are inherently stronger than solid pins. One learns this in sophomore strength of materials class at engineering school. This seems to not been learned by most tuba manufacturers yet! The B & H BBb tuba was very long and required a very large person to properly hold it on his lap. If you observe the Black Dike Mills brass band of Bradford, England you will see huge men playing the BBb tubas! Of course size is advantageous because the vital capacity varies in proportion to the cube of the height. Mr. Bol, the great Sudanese basketball player at 7' 7" or so could blow us all away if only he could play the tuba. Imagine the size mouthpiece a man of that magnitude could handle. However, he made millions playing basketball.


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