Bach BBb

[hrender]

Good looking horn.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/402612849163

[LeMark]

Good horns. Same thing as a Olds 99-4.

[EricS]

I just picked up an old Olds 0-99-41 made about 1971.Your Bach & my Olds look similar. An old Band Repair guy just informed me that the parts with this Bach tuba and Olds are interchangeable.

Does the 2-3 valve combination play in tune on this tuba? Mine is quite flat.

[Stryk]

Nice little horn!

[bloke]

Neither the pistons nor the caps are interchangeable.
Bach made those parts intentionally non-interchangeable.
The Getzen people have what remains of the Bach pistons and caps.

[Tubajug]

Does the 2-3 valve combination play in tune on this tuba? Mine is quite flat.

I had a Bach with 3 valves, and yes, the 2-3 combo was flat. I trimmed the third valve slide down.

[iiipopes]

Does the 2-3 valve combination play in tune on this tuba? Mine is quite flat.

I had a Bach with 3 valves, and yes, the 2-3 combo was flat. I trimmed the third valve slide down.

How flat? Many were made that way so 1+3 would not be sharp.

[matt g]

Does the 2-3 valve combination play in tune on this tuba? Mine is quite flat.

I had a Bach with 3 valves, and yes, the 2-3 combo was flat. I trimmed the third valve slide down.

How flat? Many were made that way so 1+3 would not be sharp.

Yeah, these are built on a tuning approach of being 3 valve horns with an F-attachment. It’s a clever setup if you’re aware of it. The 2/3J and 4/5J use this also.

[Tubajug]

I couldn't say exactly how flat it was (in terms of cents), but I cut about an inch off of each slide leg.

There was enough pull in the first slide to compensate.

[Kirley]

Does the 2-3 valve combination play in tune on this tuba? Mine is quite flat.

I agree it was very common on older American 3 valve horns to have a long 3rd valve as mentioned above. Unfortunately, even when they added a 4th valve, they didn't shorten #3 since they thought about #4s as "register valves" for adding range. Nowadays we like to think about them as possibly playing more in tune.

On my old Conn 38K I had my repair guy lop off about an 1" from both sides of the #3 loop. I just could not get an F# anywhere close to in tune. It's way better now and I can easily lip down the C. Before, that F# was just impossible.

[EricS]

Yes, I'm having a repair guy take some tubing off the 3rd slide. Fortunately, he's also a tubist so he'll cut and blow until it's what we need.

Kirley - yes, playing in tune is good. Any 2-3 valve combination was not playable with anyone. For a while I worked the 3rd slide using only the 3rd valve for Db, Gb but that got old after a concert with a bunch of pieces in Db and Ab.

[The Big Ben]

I just picked up an old Olds 0-99-41 made about 1971.Your Bach & my Olds look similar. An old Band Repair guy just informed me that the parts with this Bach tuba and Olds are interchangeable.

Does the 2-3 valve combination play in tune on this tuba? Mine is quite flat.

4v? Have the slide modified or use 4.