Posted by Rick Denney on January 10, 2002 at 14:48:34:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: What size is it? posted by Chuck(G) on January 09, 2002 at 17:06:05:
To Richard C: The reason Chuck first poked fun at you is because this has been discussed lots on this list, and those of us who have read and responded to these same subjects over and over again sometimes can't resist poking some fun at it. There's no cause for offense.
The answer to your question is that the notion of increasing the precision of the measure (eighths instead of quarters) implies that the system has any accuracy. This is not the case, and the inaccuracy of the system has been pointed out over and over again. A measurement system with precision greater than the accuracy is wasting that precision, and making distinctions that don't exist. The system would therefore be even more misleading than it is now. Greater precision is not the answer to poor accuracy.
By the way, there is no "list." Those who post here regularly, and get away with everything they say, do not exist. Everyone has been flamed at one time or another. Some get flamed more because they are intentionally provocative, and certainly a lot of flames are unwarranted and offensive. But most people who get flamed do so because they ask a frequent question that could have been answered with just a little research. For those who keep posting enough to become a regular, the reason they keep posting is because they don't take it personally, and they learn what there is to learn (if anything) from the flames.
For example, I can think of at least half a dozen posts defining (usually humorously) tubas at the various quarters of conventional sizing, and many, many explanations of why these sizes are not consistent with each other, which gets at the accuracy issue. I myself once proposed to define tubas by volume, but in my own measurements, my York Master has about the same volume as my Miraphone 186. In another post, I suggested that the York Master was really a 5/4, based on a photographic comparison with other contrabass tubas.
I found these prior threads in about ten minutes of searching, using the search field at the top:
http://www.chisham.com/tips/bbs/dec2000/messages/38633.html (The response from a Guy in Virginia answers the question admirably, heh, heh)
http://www.chisham.com/tips/bbs/jan1999/messages/8173.html
http://www.chisham.com/tips/bbs/jun2000/messages/27672.html
http://www.chisham.com/tips/bbs/mar2001/messages/49425.html
http://www.chisham.com/tips/bbs/oct2001/messages/72865.html (originally posted by me)
All of these turned up in searches on the phrases "tuba sizes" "size comparisons" and "tuba volume". Tubenet's search engine isn't that powerful, but it does serve.
Rick "who has an article on the web that turned up in a Google search of '4/4 5/4 6/4 tubas', linked below" Denney