Posted by Shon on November 28, 2002 at 00:33:00:
In Reply to: Re: What's the lowest non-pedal you can hit? posted by Rick Denney on November 27, 2002 at 14:34:09:
Rick, your math is off quite a bit. The length of the first valve tubing on a BBb is the amount needed to change a BBb tuba to an AAb tuba (not an F tuba to an Eb tuba). Here are the approximate figures:
1st valve (2 half steps): 26.5"
2nd valve (1 half step ): 12.8"
3rd valve (3 half steps): 40.9"
4th valve (5 half steps): 72.3"
Total : 152.5"
Tubing to add for a DDb ( 9 half steps): 147.3"
Tubing to add for a CCC (10 half steps): 168.9"
Tubing to add for a BBB (11 half steps): 191.8"
So all 4 valves down should be somewhere between a DDb and a CCC. There's about a 40" deficit for the BBB. That's a lot of missing tubing.
For the curious, the formula is: raise 2 to the power (k / 12) where k is the number of half steps to drop the pitch. Subtract 1 and multiply by the open bugle length (18 feet for a BBb). A couple minutes with Excel produced the figures above.