Re: BBb modification for my CC Miraphone


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Posted by Tom B. on September 14, 2001 at 23:24:33:

In Reply to: BBb modification for my CC Miraphone posted by Tom Newcomb on September 14, 2001 at 13:48:04:

I was about to suggest that you take your 5th valve apart and flip it so that it is "on" all the time, but first of all, you would have to have a 5th valve and it would have to be a whole step valve.

Playing a Canadian Brass CB-50 (Getzen), a horn marketed as being able to switch between CC and BBb, I go to thinking about the way my horn is built. The 5th valve can be configured in 1/2 step, 1 step, or 2 steps as needed, and with the 5th rotor "switched the other direction," you are able to "lock" the tuba into playing down from CC all the time. Then I got to thinking that you could essentially do the same thing with the exception being that you would have to add the extra tubing to your main tuning slide so as not to change the "pitch lowering" of one particular valve or combination of valves. When you add the extra tubing to the main tuning slide, it is always "on" or in use, thus allowing your horn to become a BBb.

Someone like Matt Walters would be your best bet in building a longer main tuning slide by about 2 feet. However, it could be built Rudy Meinl sytle with an overlapping loop so that it all fits in the same amount of space. Try to take a look at the Arnold Jacobs CD to see a overlapping Rudy slide for an idea on how this could be done.


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