although confusingly, they often referred to it as the , to distinguish it from the tenor trombones. This instrument blended with the usual Italian trombone section of the time—three tenor valve trombones in B—and became the prototype for the modern cimbasso. Construction The modern cimbasso emerged in Germany in the early 20th century, its design ultimately descended from the Pelitti design preferred by Verdi. In the 1960s, Thein took the modern contrabass trombone in F developed by Dehmel and Kunitz and fitted it with the same valves and fingering as the modern F tuba, and named this new instrument the "cimbasso". The mouthpiece and leadpipe are positioned in front of the player, the valve tubing section is arranged vertically between the player's knees and rests on the floor with a cello-style endpin, and the bell is arranged over the player's left shoulder to point horizontally forward, similar to a trombone. This design accommodates the instrument in cramped orchestra pits and allows a direct, concentrated sound to be projected towards the conductor and audience. The mouthpiece receiver is usually sized to take tuba shank mouthpieces, or sometimes the smaller bass trombone shank size depending on the size of the instrument. The bore tends to range between that of a contrabass trombone and a small F tuba, , and even larger for the larger instruments in low C or B♭. The bell diameter is usually between . There has been demand over time for larger bore instruments with a more conical bore and larger bell, in contrast with the trombone-like sound from smaller cylindrical bore instruments. This is because cimbasso parts are often played in the modern orchestra by tuba players, particularly in the US. Some manufacturers cater to both needs, for example Červený offer two cimbassi in F, one model with a small bore and bell listed with their valve trombones, and another with a tuba-like bore of and a larger bell with much wider flare, listed with their tubas. The cimbasso is usually built with rotary valves, although some Italian makers use piston valves. British instrument maker Mike Johnson builds cimbassi with four compensating piston valves as commonly found on British tubas, in both F/C and E♭/B♭ sizes. Los Angeles tubist Jim Self had a compact F cimbasso built in the shape of a euphonium which has been named the "Jimbasso". In 2004 Swiss brass instrument manufacturer Haag released a