I would say that high pitch makes it considerably less attractive as a player. I'm not sure how useful a 3-valve F tuba would be -- especially if the surgery left it with intonation issues. The problem in this regard can often be the tuning of the 2nd valve since tuning the instrument higher may likely require shortening each of the valve circuits (even if it starts off life as a high pitch Eb), and there's just not much to work with in the case of the 2nd valve. If someone wants to play in a group, then intonation tends to matter a lot. So horns like this tend to be either: (a) of historical interest, as is; (b) perhaps useful just for grins and maybe for playing in ensembles that don't care too much about exact tuning (Tuba Christmas, German band, ...?); or (c) project horns with somewhat unpredictable results.
Last edited by ghmerrill; 04-10-2018 at 02:43 PM.
Gary Merrill
Wessex EEb Bass tuba (DW 3XL or 2XL)
Mack Brass Compensating Euph (DE N106, Euph J, J9 euph)
Amati Oval Euph (DE 104, Euph J, J6 euph)
1924 Buescher 3-valve Eb tuba (with std US receiver), Kelly 25
Schiller American Heritage 7B clone bass trombone (DE LB K/K10/112/14 Lexan, Brass Ark MV50R)
1947 Olds "Standard" trombone (Olds #3)