Posted by Fred Youg on April 23, 2001 at 19:56:33:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Fiberglass upright tuba posted by Joe S. on April 23, 2001 at 16:08:38:
The Conn I tried was the earliest model and they may well have improved them. Bell front instruments may not really be as bad as many think if they are played properly. There was a time in the CSO when Arnold Jacobs wanted to be hear very clearly. He turned around and pointed his bell at the audience as does the present Pgh Sym. tubist today. The high harmonics that make the articulations clear propagate along the axis of the bell (see Acoustical Engineering by Olson) whilst the low harmonics propagate perpendicular to the axis of the bell. Thus in many heavily curtained concert halls all that makes for good articulation gets lost.
Incidently, I think the original sousaphones were made bell up. I suggested to Holton that they make upright bells for concert use on their fiberglass sousaphones. They said Thank you but no thank you and sent me a free Holton mouthpiece. The result of my demonstration was that the MidEast Conference would no longer let people try the instruments on the exhibit floor because all the companies except Holton complained that it was unfair for everyone to hear the differences in the sounds of tubas.
Another technique we used about 50 years ago in recording sessions was to turn the bell front bells backwards because the fundamental propagates in directions behind the bell (thus towards the audience) and the back curtains absorb the high harmonics