F-tuba´s 5th and 6th valve setup
Posted: Wed May 10, 2023 1:25 am
Recently I treated my Melton 46S to a full-scale overhaul and it came back in perfect condition.
In the process, I had an additional set of 5th and 6th valve slides made:
- one set provides the same length as an F-tuba´s 2nd and 1st valve, respectively.
This setup is what I´m used to and has been with me from the very beginning of my F-tuba experience.
- A second (brand new) set of slides is longer and will provide a C-Tuba´s 2nd and 1st valve lengths, to go with an activated 4th valve.
The former setup provides the following advantage:
As you descend chromatically down from F to F1, the fingering scheme of the right hand remains the same as with a compensating system,
with some pitch tendencies.
"sharp" and "flat" means: manageable to lip to pitch, with concentration.
"all right" means: deviation noticeable, but easy to lip to pitch.
"perfect" means: deviation is smaller than, say, 10 cents, which is within my personal embouchure variability when looking at a tuner.
4 (perfect)
4-2 (sharp)
4-1(5) (flat)
4-12(5) (perfect)
4-23(5) or (6) (both all right at opposing ends of the spectrum)
4-13(6) (perfect)
4-123(56) (perfect)
The new setup SHOULD provide perfect pitches with different fingering patterns, because for each note one can come up with a fingering in the "perfect" category. The downside is that these new valve combinations are hard to enter into "muscle memory" and therefore lacks fluidity.
However, I find the pitches with this new setup running all over the place, and inconsistently so.
(That means: two consecutive notes, played on the same valve combination, might deviate 20-30 cents from each other).
Maybe I´ll just have to re-wire the connection between brain and embouchure if I want to get this to work.
Or just stick with the former setup until I might want to sell the horn to somebody who´s hard-wired to the new one...
In the process, I had an additional set of 5th and 6th valve slides made:
- one set provides the same length as an F-tuba´s 2nd and 1st valve, respectively.
This setup is what I´m used to and has been with me from the very beginning of my F-tuba experience.
- A second (brand new) set of slides is longer and will provide a C-Tuba´s 2nd and 1st valve lengths, to go with an activated 4th valve.
The former setup provides the following advantage:
As you descend chromatically down from F to F1, the fingering scheme of the right hand remains the same as with a compensating system,
with some pitch tendencies.
"sharp" and "flat" means: manageable to lip to pitch, with concentration.
"all right" means: deviation noticeable, but easy to lip to pitch.
"perfect" means: deviation is smaller than, say, 10 cents, which is within my personal embouchure variability when looking at a tuner.
4 (perfect)
4-2 (sharp)
4-1(5) (flat)
4-12(5) (perfect)
4-23(5) or (6) (both all right at opposing ends of the spectrum)
4-13(6) (perfect)
4-123(56) (perfect)
The new setup SHOULD provide perfect pitches with different fingering patterns, because for each note one can come up with a fingering in the "perfect" category. The downside is that these new valve combinations are hard to enter into "muscle memory" and therefore lacks fluidity.
However, I find the pitches with this new setup running all over the place, and inconsistently so.
(That means: two consecutive notes, played on the same valve combination, might deviate 20-30 cents from each other).
Maybe I´ll just have to re-wire the connection between brain and embouchure if I want to get this to work.
Or just stick with the former setup until I might want to sell the horn to somebody who´s hard-wired to the new one...