Posted by Klaus on November 15, 2002 at 19:20:16:
In Reply to: Re: BBb? I think not! posted by my guess on November 15, 2002 at 18:46:11:
Good guess!
Hardly even one single European rotary F tuba was ever built with a horizontal main tuning slide.
And even if this statement of mine should be wrong, the proof for Joe's guess is readily available. Just follow the link given below. The single element of confusion might be, that it appears like Cerveny tubas for some periods of time were marketed under the Amati brand on the Eastern European market.
When I back in 1993 met a huge cadets' band from the military conservatory of Gdansk, Poland, the 4 F's were Amatis, whereas the single BBb Kaiser was an Alexander. Most likley pre-WWII. The state of the instruments in that band would not have been accepted in my country. The four 1st and 2nd bones played Amati instruments with extremely bad slides. The 3rd bone player was the lucky one. He had been provided a Yamaha 354, old and worn. Boris, the 3rd bone voluntered as my bodyguard cum shadow, without my asking, during a German dance night in a restaurant, where I sat in with a Belgian band. Boris almost fainted, when he tried the slide of my King 7B.. And as you know, the 7B has a fairly heavy brass slide.
The link given below will take you to the Cerveny 641-4 page. Click the "Rotary Valve Tubas" hyperlink down left, and yopu will be taken to the specs page.
Klaus