Posted by Art H on January 14, 2003 at 23:43:19:
In Reply to: Flatted-Whole-Step Fifth Valve posted by Brent Herhold on January 14, 2003 at 18:22:55:
I'm sure that people have been experimenting with 5th valves for more than 100 years, but I believe the present trend can be traced to Chester Roberts, who published a description of the "whole-step" 5th valve in the TUBA Journal almost 30 years ago. The article was titled "Coping With the Extension Register". My understanding is that the longer (2&3) 5th valve can give you slightly better tuning, but requires learning a lot of complicated fingerings. The whole-step valve seems more intuitive and easier to learn.
For much more info on this subject, see #9 & 10 on the