Posted by Jay Bertolet on December 21, 2001 at 21:17:05:
In Reply to: 5th valve on your 4th posted by Patrick on December 21, 2001 at 19:17:31:
Yamaha used to offer their YEB-321 Eb tuba with a 5th valve installed in the 4th valve slide, dubbed the YEB-381 I believe. I tried one and I really didn't like it. The problem with that kind of valve design is how stuffy the valve is. The ones I saw had very tightly wrapped tubing so that it would fit into the assigned space. A dependent valve also has twice as many 90 degree turns because of the two valves and it will be of the same bore as the 4th valve. A good 5th valve, which you're going to be using mostly in the low range, benefits from being of a little larger bore. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule but these have been my observations to date. I would say I prefer an independent 5th valve. It will have more functionality in addition to having what I think is a better chance of sounding good.
My opinion for what it's worth...