The tuba bass accordion blends two beautiful sounding instruments into one: the deep sonorous sound of the tuba and the higher registers of the versatile piano accordion. The tuba bass accordion is also a blend of old and new - the helicon tuba evolved from ram's horn trumpets made thousands of years ago and the modem piano accordion was invented circa 1907, making it one of the newest instruments in the world.

To get the deep tuba range in an accordion requires specially designed bass reeds. Lower tones require longer reeds. In fact, the tuba bass reeds are more than an inch longer than the lowest regular accordion bass reeds.

The tuba reeds are made of the highest quality Swedish blue tempered steel. To faithfully reproduce the familiar low-pitched tones of the tuba, the reeds had to be made longer, wider, and thicker than regular bass reeds. Each reed is mounted on individual reed plates. Design problems involving the new reeds, leathers, plates, and blocks all had to be solved.

Once these and other technical difficulties were resolved, Petosa faced the greatest challenge of all; the final test. How would it sound?

Fantastic ! The tuba model has perfectly combined the helicon bass sound with a magical combination of musette tunings. This professional quality instrument is particularly well suited to the demanding range and contrast of ethnic music.

(Birth of an accordion, by Robert Miller. Accordion World Winter 1989.)

In an Accordion World product review, the petosa tuba bass accordion was rated the highest. Model reviewed was with hand finished reeds.

The Accordion World review staff found this to be the perfect instrument for ethnic music, polka, waltz, and march tunes.