Posted by fingers on January 29, 2004 at 21:09:00:
The first time I saw the linkage arrangement for this "modern" 6V tuba I had to laugh out loud. A non-tuba player viewing this for the 1st time would certainly view this as incredibly arcane.
The "thumb" 5th valve thing has only been offered for three decades or so, yet now we are supposedly so transfixed in this that we consider it EASIER to operate a valve with our THUMB than with our SECOND FINGER ???
The supposed advantage of sacrificing 5th valve agility (operation with a primary digit) for the clunky thumb was to free up the left hand for upper slide manipulation...but if the left hand must stay in place to operate the 6th valve anyway, why not let BOTH the 5th and 6th valves be operated by primary digits (as with 6V F-tubas for many decades)?
Yes, yes. Bassoonists are stuck with doing a bunch of junk with their thumb...but they HAVE to...and they're...well...weird.