Posted by Jay Bertolet on March 17, 2002 at 11:00:49:
In Reply to: Prefered 5th valve config? posted by Ian Easton on March 17, 2002 at 07:51:33:
Absolutely, the flat whole tone! Ironically, for exactly the reason you say is a problem for you on your PT-6. All my tubas (except one that I just got) are configured for flat whole tone and the fingerings are very consistent between all these horns. The first thing I do when I'm setting the slides on a tuba is get the first four valves set properly. After that, I set the fifth slide so that the low 4-5 combination (low F on a CC tuba) is dead on. Once finished, almost every tuba calibrated this way yields a good scale through three octaves with the fingerings I'm accustomed to. My newest instrument, a Miraphone 184 CC, is currently waiting to go to the repairman's shop to have the fifth valve (currently sharp two whole tone) cut to make it a flat whole tone.
My opinion for what it's worth...