Seven-Valve Tuba

[EuphAnon]

In this video of the Austrian Brass group, it appears that the tuba player is using what appears to be a tuba with SEVEN valves! I've heard of six valve tubas, but seven is outrageous. Also since he's standing, that must be a pretty heavy tuba.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_srdB2JGBI

[davewerden]

In the Coast Guard Tuba Quartet (and the Atlantic Tuba Quartet), Gary Buttery usually used a 7-valve Alexander F tuba. As I understand it the horn was a post-production custom modification. The right-hand 4 valves were normal, and the left-hand 3 valves were tuned to function as normal 1-2-3 when the right-hand 4 was pressed (effectively a dual-key tuba: F and CC).

[EuphAnon]

Wow. I can't imagine how heavy that is and how much it would cost! I only have experiance playing on the BBb tuba I play at my school. I don't rally know much about CC, EEb or F tubas. I wonder if there are any available today?