Posted by Leland on August 04, 2000 at 13:56:09:
In Reply to: Re: Re: leadpipes posted by Tom on August 04, 2000 at 07:24:30:
Dealers rarely share that information about anything except mallet percussion (vibraphone, marimba, etc). Yamaha keyboards are built at A=442, and Ludwig's are at 440. Don't ask me why they're different, but really, they're the only instruments where the original pitch calibration is an issue, because they can't be tuned and re-tuned.
I've thought that it was standard practice to build brasses on the sharp side, where in typical indoor conditions a pushed-in slide would sit around A=443 or so, and 440 would result in the slide being out a bit -- probably just over an inch on tuba. This also gives room on the slide for raising the pitch to whatever might be happening in the ensemble, or to help compensate for most weather-induced changes.