Posted by Scott Norberg on October 20, 2003 at 22:26:16:
In Reply to: Re: Bass tuba wanted posted by Jim on October 20, 2003 at 15:58:27:
I'll agree that it's a great idea. Unfortunately it's been rare that I find a tuba that plays as in-tune as I would think the designers intended. It's one thing to say that a tuba has the mathematically correct tube lengths for every note, and it's completely another to put that into practice. I haven't played a tuba yet without at least a quirky note or two in its register, and with compensating tubas you just don't have the number of alternate fingerings available to you as you would on a 5 valved instrument to fix such notes. I don't think that one setup is superior to the other (at least not until intonation flaws get fixed in instruments), but when you throw in the fact that I don't care at all for the 3+1 setup I think it's reasonable not to play any compensating instruments. (Yes, there are 4 valve in-line compensators, but I don't care for the Besson 983 and I don't know what else, if anything, would be available to me in my price range.)
Hope that helps,
Scott