Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: How to stuff a PT-6


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Posted by K on April 16, 2003 at 17:13:33:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: How to stuff a PT-6 posted by Rick Denney on April 16, 2003 at 16:17:08:

I wouldn't have mentioned my trombone/euph/Kaiserbariton experiences, hadn't they been confirm to my tuba/sousaphone experiences.

3 of my basses are silverplated (one of them with a layer of gold over the silver). One, the York Master, after all has so much laquer left, that it can be considered a laquered instrument.

Even if the YM has the largest bore, .750, it has not the widest spectrum soundwise or in regard to dynamics. As its bell is not much smaller than that of the Conn 40K, I believe the laquer to be a factor to be counted into the overall picture. The mouthpiece is the same on all 4 basses, a PT-50 with an enlarged backbore (barrel shape).

In good tubas, even contrabass such one, I find that frequencies above 1000MHz very well should be counted into the overall sound landscape. (And I don't remember, why 100MHz should be considered a threshold after all).

The 16th partial on BBb tubas is somewhere around 930Mhz. It is fairly easy to get on both my contrabasses. On good days the 32nd partial is also playable, and that would be around 1860MHz.

I mostly go up there in flexibility exercises. But I believe, that if these notes are playable on an instrument, then they contribute to the overall fulness of sound, because they oscillate as "sympathetic strings" (this is not far from a point recently presented by yourself). And I think they contribute very much to the presentation and audibility of the musical lines played by such contrabass tubas. I even believe, that exactly this factor is the tool, that makes it possible for a combination of a good tuba and a good player to improve/repair/control/or-whatever the intonation and the soundwise coherence of an elsewise not so good ensemble.

And that explains one more reason, why tuba sections should play exactly in tune (and that not only due to the instruments happening to be of the same key having similar off-pitch tendencies). To me the worst problem is not the beats between tuba notes being out of tune. The worst problem is the confusion, that such tubas spread to the rest of the band. That is why the player playing any given note most in tune invariably and without hesitation shall be followed. But that is stuff enough for another thread.

Klaus


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