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The seller seems to have very little selling feedback, so be a little cautious there (although yes, everyone good starts somewhere, too!).

Otherwise these are solid tubas and the price is on the inflation side of "normal" for these... But IMO it's worth what's being asked for it.

$50 shipping is a red flag though, we all know that isn't right. Not many people here in or near Utah, so local deals probably aren't happening either...

Nice tuba!

“…comes with a Bb trigger?” Does the poster think pressing down the 5th valve makes it turn into a Bb horn? Nice theory I guess, but in practice that seldom goes well.

DonO. wrote: ↑Thu Apr 13, 2023 8:14 am “…comes with a Bb trigger?” Does the poster think pressing down the 5th valve makes it turn into a Bb horn? Nice theory I guess, but in practice that seldom goes well.

Yeah, some people just kind of say/think those things.

And I don't remember, but some tubas were marketed this way. Occasionally, as with the B&S Neptune, there is a separate 5th valve slide to help facilitate this, and longer pull lengths for the slides to help with it. Results can be "alright" or better... But horns are always best in their originally designed key.

bort2.0 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 13, 2023 9:29 am

DonO. wrote: ↑Thu Apr 13, 2023 8:14 am “…comes with a Bb trigger?” Does the poster think pressing down the 5th valve makes it turn into a Bb horn? Nice theory I guess, but in practice that seldom goes well.

Yeah, some people just kind of say/think those things.

And I don't remember, but some tubas were marketed this way. Occasionally, as with the B&S Neptune, there is a separate 5th valve slide to help facilitate this, and longer pull lengths for the slides to help with it. Results can be "alright" or better... But horns are always best in their originally designed key.

And doesn't some tuba have a locking mechanism to keep the fifth valve (with a shorter slide) actuated, as well as witness marks on the other valve slides so that you can pull them out to proper BBb length and play it like a four-valve BBb?

When I got my first CC tuba, which was sharp-natured anyway, I cheated by pushing in the fifth valve and main tuning slide all the way and doing exactly that for certain passaged I hadn't yet mastered on CC.

Dumb, but it worked. Now I need something like that for my Eb tuba.

arpthark wrote: ↑Thu Apr 13, 2023 9:32 am

bort2.0 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 13, 2023 9:29 am

DonO. wrote: ↑Thu Apr 13, 2023 8:14 am “…comes with a Bb trigger?” Does the poster think pressing down the 5th valve makes it turn into a Bb horn? Nice theory I guess, but in practice that seldom goes well.

And doesn't some tuba have a locking mechanism to keep the fifth valve (with a shorter slide) actuated, as well as witness marks on the other valve slides so that you can pull them out to proper BBb length and play it like a four-valve BBb?

That's what Lee Stofer does on his custom CC piston tubas. He's built around a dozen of these and he's mighty persnickety about details, so I'm confident that his version works well.
Tim
Tim

The Neptune 5th valve has a "pun" or screw or something on the 5th rotor... As a CC tuba, it's what you expect, the 5th tubing isn't used unless you actuate the 5th valve.

Activate the valve and move the pin, it stays activated and the 5th valve tubing is always used. It works, but as opposed to a real BBb tuba that goes from mouthpiece to first valve, you have to blow air from mouthpiece through rotor through valve tubing, then into first valve. A little funky

bort2.0 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 13, 2023 10:09 am The Neptune 5th valve has a "pun" or screw or something on the 5th rotor... As a CC tuba, it's what you expect, the 5th tubing isn't used unless you actuate the 5th valve.

Activate the valve and move the pin, it stays activated and the 5th valve tubing is always used. It works, but as opposed to a real BBb tuba that goes from mouthpiece to first valve, you have to blow air from mouthpiece through rotor through valve tubing, then into first valve. A little funky

Thanks, that's what I was thinking of.

Unfortunately, I never took a picture of it. Maybe someone e else has one!

bort2.0 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 13, 2023 9:29 am

DonO. wrote: ↑Thu Apr 13, 2023 8:14 am “…comes with a Bb trigger?” Does the poster think pressing down the 5th valve makes it turn into a Bb horn? Nice theory I guess, but in practice that seldom goes well.

Yeah, some people just kind of say/think those things.

And I don't remember, but some tubas were marketed this way. Occasionally, as with the B&S Neptune, there is a separate 5th valve slide to help facilitate this, and longer pull lengths for the slides to help with it. Results can be "alright" or better... But horns are always best in their originally designed key.

Getzen used to market the CB-50/G-50 that way, to use the CB name and the whole idea of "BBb in high school, CC in college" to get parents to buy them.

^ YES! That's the one, thanks Wade!

The 5th valve has a removable slide extension. Not making a comment as to what the owner is stating, but I do know that you can change the length of the 5th valve slide.

I had a piggy while 2 of these were in the tuba studio in college. This tuba is very comparable to a piggy in terms of size. Additionally I thought the Yamahas played well.

The 621 F has a flat half step 5th with an included extension to make it a standard flat whole step 5th. Yamaha was "in" to that idea back then.

That seller accepted a 3500 offer, No I didn't buy it. It's on its way to Chesapeake VA.....

jtuba wrote: ↑Fri Apr 14, 2023 6:28 am That seller accepted a 3500 offer, No I didn't buy it. It's on its way to Chesapeake VA.....

I got that same offer as an item watcher, but was just watching out of curiosity. I figured someone would take it.

jtuba wrote: ↑Fri Apr 14, 2023 6:28 am That seller accepted a 3500 offer, No I didn't buy it. It's on its way to Chesapeake VA.....

That was a pretty good deal. Congrats to the buyer!

Back in like 2003, I was narrowing my choices at Baltimore Brass between the VMI CC (which I bought) and one of these Yamaha 661's. I liked the Yamaha better by a little bit, but it was much more expensive than the 661.

Seems like nobody really knows how to price the 661 either... $3500 is about the low end that I've seen... I the $4's is typical... And top end I've seen $5500 (from a seller that IMO usually overprices things). That's a lot of variation.

There was also the Canadian Brass goldplated 661 at BAC/Horn Doctor a few years ago... That was like $12k or something....?

Anyway congrats to the person in Virginia!