The book has been recast to avoid duplicating post-1978 contributions to tuba knowledge. As the author comments: 'Perhaps surprisingly, the tuba itself is now one of the best-documented instruments in existence ...'. He keys it in securely to the rest of the literature. This is very sensible, minimising the inconvenience that might have been caused by the book's UK bias (acknowledged up front). Its brass-sociological flavour is distinctly British.