Posted by Rick Denney on March 14, 2003 at 22:23:27:
In Reply to: Re: rhetoric posted by I played... on March 14, 2003 at 15:43:03:
Chuck G has a hybrid with a Conn short-action valveset and Keefer outer branches and bell that is one of the nicest-playing BBb tubas I've ever played. Larry Minnick built it, and it seems to break some rules, but the results speak for themselves. This tells me that there's nothing inherently wrong with the short-action valves from a music-making standpoint.
I suspect that the new Conns use the smaller valve bore because it would be made in the King factory where such valves are the standard product, and not in the Conn factory where short-action valves are made. Also, it has been said that for instruments of that size, that valve bore seems especially effective. The G-50 also used that bore to good effect.
Rick "who recalls that the 5xJ developers were given constraints of which parts they had to use" Denney