Re: Culbertson Neptune opinions


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Posted by Jason Baker on September 13, 2003 at 19:50:10:

In Reply to: Culbertson Neptune opinions posted by interested buyer on September 13, 2003 at 19:25:13:

I've been playing on a Neptune for about 4 years now. Its okay. The mid and low range intonation is pretty good. The 5th valve is very necesary. The intonation on mine isn't great. Pitches above the second space C require alot of alternate fingerings. In fact if there is an an alternate fingering above that C, i probably have to use it. The second valve trigger will baffle you at first but it is a very nice addition and helps bring F sharps and super low notes into tune. If you like to play with your first valve slide, you won't be able to do it on this horn. The fifth vale slide gets in the way. Make sure you get both lead pipes and fifth valve slides too. Make sure the leadpipe works with your horn too. When I got my neptune, the second leadpipe didn't fit on my tuba and the long fifth valve slide didn't fit properly either. They were for the rotary neptune, but they didn't fit quite right on mine. Also, don't expect to be able to crank on the low register right away. I don't know how much you have played on 6/4's but when I first tried out 6/4's I found all of them to have stuffy low registers. Its a problem that goes away with time, but if you need to play Prokofiev or Shostakovich like a week after buying the horn, you will be unpleasantly surprised by how difficult it is to play loudly in the low register. This isn't as well written as I would like it to be, but I just had a bunch of Miller High Life's. Because some days, you just feel like a conservative 68 year old man.


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