Posted by olituba on December 12, 2001 at 03:00:01:
In Reply to: Why is low range bad on F's? posted by Jason on December 12, 2001 at 01:32:56:
Another reason Iīve heard: The old Fs it seems useed function beautifully down there, but didnīt produce the broad tuba sound of modern ones. Sounded more like something halfway between a euph and a CC unlike today where F really sound like a tuba when well played. The big difference is measurements. look at a rreally old Alexander F from say the 1910s to 20s. Cute, very smallish instruments, nothing like what you get today. Then they started to enlarge those babes, enlarging the sound on the way, getting them more and more like a very small CC, but at the cost of that lower register, especially between f directly under the staff down to the Bb under that. Fs lost all core to the sound in that register. THe actual reason seems to be that the throat is so big, it canīt sustain a propper sound with a good core on its own anymore, plus everything below got very weak and wobbly. Now the art about this is to manage and get all that stuff down there stable, good sounding, and thus make it appear like just any other range of the tuba. And BtW, thats a good portion of what constitutes good german tuba-playing. Cause if youīre to spend most of your pro-tuba-life on F tuba you just gotta get that problem solved..
For what itīs worth,
Olituba