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Spending time - lately- with B-flat tubas, I’m just about convinced that a really good B-flat tuba plays this piece more easily (as far as more easily achieving a certain level of tuning and resonance) than a really good C tuba - as this piece is always tackled in this manner in continental Europe, where the piece was composed.

Some of us remember those ridiculous Miraphone 186 C-to-B-flat conversion slides, which would convert a really good C tuba to a terrible B-flat tuba.

That memory having been expressed, has anyone ever had a B-NATURAL conversion slide built for a really good-playing C-tuba?

If good intonation would transfer - with only a semitone extension, most of the pitches would involve fewer added valves.
Ironically, “open“ C below the staff (which would morph into "open" B) often is not the best resonating pitch - nor the most stable - on many C tubas. More than a handful of times - when playing even really fine C tubas - I have utilized 135 to play that pitch with more (what is it that some mislabel it…?? oh yeah, that misnomer...) “core”...
...which is why I’m beginning to prefer the excerpt on B-flat instruments.
.............
‘ funny how much time tuba players devote to this excerpt - and how consistently it is used as a first round filter in auditions - compared to how seldom it is programmed. After quite a few years since my last time, I actually performed it two or three years ago…
..............
I had to leave the room so people wouldn’t see me chuckle when I walked in on a wind-band rehearsal of the piece, as - perfectly together - the ensemble was executing the dotted rhythm in the same way that typical 17 and 18-year-olds execute it - until coaches or studio teachers take the rhythm apart, analyze it for their students, and put it back together.

...wow... I probably typed enough different things - about enough different things - to “trigger” all sorts of people, this morning.

Toby Hanks used to make me play this on F tuba in lessons. Lemme tell ya: it does not lay well for F!

There used to be a big ōl’ 6/4 tuba in the front window of Rayburn Music in Boston when they were a block or so away from Symphony Hall that was somewhere in the mid-cut process. It was closest to the key of B. The slides were maybe in C? Great sound but a mess of a tuba otherwise.

matt g wrote: ↑Sat Jun 19, 2021 11:07 am There used to be a big ōl’ 6/4 tuba in the front window of Rayburn Music in Boston when they were a block or so away from Symphony Hall that was somewhere in the mid-cut process. It was closest to the key of B. The slides were maybe in C? Great sound but a mess of a tuba otherwise.

That could have been an old high-pitch instrument.
I have a Bohemian four-rotor oval bariton that - dead on - plays "open" in B.

bloke wrote: ↑Sat Jun 19, 2021 11:31 am

matt g wrote: ↑Sat Jun 19, 2021 11:07 am There used to be a big ōl’ 6/4 tuba in the front window of Rayburn Music in Boston when they were a block or so away from Symphony Hall that was somewhere in the mid-cut process. It was closest to the key of B. The slides were maybe in C? Great sound but a mess of a tuba otherwise.

That could have been an old high-pitch instrument.
I have a Bohemian four-rotor oval bariton that - dead on - plays "open" in B.

I remember being able to see evidence of cuts. Like hacksaw marks. It’s been awhile (~20 years), but I also recall there being evidence that the old leadpipe has a tuning loop that had been removed via a swap with a straight pipe.

UncleBeer wrote: ↑Sat Jun 19, 2021 10:53 am Toby Hanks used to make me play this on F tuba in lessons. Lemme tell ya: it does not lay well for F!

Wow - good thing I didn’t own an F tuba at that time* ……all I had was my BBb (eek)

(*nor do I now)

topic:
“low with F tuba”

The couple of times I’ve played the Mendelssohn “Reformation”, I have played it an octave lower than written (contrabassoon part) with F tuba, so the part is not so resonant,
In particular, I am referring to the big D major section with the trombones and the “double low“ D’s.

bloke wrote: ↑Tue Jun 22, 2021 5:51 am The couple of times I’ve played the Mendelssohn “Reformation”, I have played it an octave lower than written (contrabassoon part) with F tuba

Works great on French tuba, Joe!

Hasn't that bloke formerly of Memphis had a B tuba on a couple of occasions?

IIRC, some partially Reynolds thing?

Some 6/4 Holton with 3 valves in mid-cut?

I know Debbie once told me about bloke once playing a tuba in B in public.

That bugle is still here, but the valveset and bell are gone.

cjk wrote: ↑Tue Jun 22, 2021 11:51 am Hasn't that bloke formerly of Memphis had a B tuba on a couple of occasions?

IIRC, some partially Reynolds thing?

Some 6/4 Holton with 3 valves in mid-cut?

I know Debbie once told me about bloke once playing a tuba in B in public.

seems like one might be able to build something akin to the hp/lp doughnut which gets removed from York monster E flat tubas when they are fixed up, only removable.