Posted by Frederick J. Young on November 25, 2001 at 12:02:24:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Does anyone but me... posted by Chuck(G) on November 24, 2001 at 11:21:32:
That is true the 123 combination is only a bit sharp and the original Besson patent added a trigger or extra valve to fix that! I used to have a Hawkes & Sons Eb compensating tuba made in about 1880 that had the trigger on the 4th valve.
It would be better if you had a good open tone F 4 lines below the staff. However, if it is not a very large instrument that may not be the case. As far as I can calculate the best combination with the extra 4th valve would be the use of 2,3 & 4 to produce a low E. The mathematics of the tube lengths gives you a very good approximation to the proper length to produce that note in tune. It shall be up to you to find a combination of valves and slide pulls to get the remaining 3 semitones below E in tune because your valves won't ever add up correctly to yield the proper lengths.