Originally Posted by
Snake Charmer
There were a lot of french instruments in C with a Bb extension. They were used by bands playing on sunday morning in the church (choral music written in C) and concert in the park in the afternoon (band music written in Bb). They just used the extension and pulled the slides a bit out and could read it the same way. Couesnon is still offering a 4v Saxhorn in C/Bb!
But isn't the intonation of the horn with the Bb extension pretty dreadful? Using "extension" slides like this was fairly common in the late 19th and early 20th century for tubas in order to be able to play the horn in either "high pitch" (A > 440) or "low pitch" (A <= 440). But even there, intonation on at least one of those on a given instrument was at least a bit wonky. To try the same "extension tuning slide" approach for a difference of 2 half-steps can't yield very good results -- and especially on a conical bore instrument. Can it?
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)