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Fredrick
(79 points)
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The human ear can hear down to 20 Hz and I was wondering if anybody knew if a tuba could play that low or, if not, how low a tuba can play.
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ekdavies
(189 points)
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You can work this out as follows:
440Hz (Hz=Hertz the unit of frequency) is the A above middle C (the usually "tuning note" for orchestras) and the Bb above is therefore approximately 466Hz. As today's standard scale has an equal temperament ie 12 increments on a logarithmic scale doubling every octave- see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_temperament
The lowest open note on Bb Trumpet/cornet is an octave below ie approximately 233Hz.
The lowest open note on Bb Euphonium is a further octave below ie approximately 116Hz.
And the lowest open note on BBb Bass is a further octave below ie approximately 58Hz. I've avoided pedal notes which are a further octave lower and approximately 29Hz on a BBb Bass. In principle, a very good player could descend a further half octave using the standard valves ie down to approximately 20.5Hz. Other tubas can't play this low eg a EEb tuba is a 4th higher ie frequencies are higher by a factor of 1.3348.
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zoom
(323 points)
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(my tuppenceworth two months later)
It's possibly easier to think of the A's (440 being a nice, easy number to deal with)
440 – tuning note
220 – octave lower; half the frequency
110 – another octave lower; half the frequency again
55 – third ledger line below the bass stave
27.5 – beneath the sixth ledger line – lowest note on a regular piano – lower than I've needed in "real life" ... main use is to upstage contrabassoons 
At schools I used to demonstrate an A major arpeggio incorporating these five notes on the Eb tuba that I was using at the time.
In normal orchestral and band use, all of the notes are available on all of the tubas; the main reason for selecting one instrument over another is to do with timbre. Generally speaking, you could think of a big, bottomy (sometimes spread) sound versus a tighter, focused sound, but the best way to compare is to get a player to demonstrate the various instruments.
Of course, you don't want to walk into a Bydlo or Symphonie Fantastique rehearsal with a monster Bb – or Prokofiev anything with a petite F!
There's a lot of info to be found on this specialist forum: http://forums.chisham.com/viewforum.php?f=2
cheers – zoom
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ure-name-here
(139 points)
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theres a instrument called a tubax, its a sub contrabass saxaphone 8 feet hight with 28 feet of tubing. it can play the space below the 8th leger line and can be tuned to play too low for humans to hear
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