Posted by Nice thought on February 17, 2004 at 15:14:21:
In Reply to: Re: Go figure..... posted by bloke on February 17, 2004 at 14:56:16:
but the base of the mute's seal is really quite air tight. (a rubber surround on the bottom trimmed so there's no overlap. Quite frankly it is more airtight than the valves....) Thie design is pretty iffy but since writing the initial post I've tried playing the tuba without anything (bell or mute) at all and found that it's pretty close to sounding a Bb; the same note it plays with the bell in place. The harmonics are all as one would expect (again- marginal but OK for practice intonation though with no mute it's still too loud for the office) Acting on the bad seal theory I tried sealing the juncture of the bell/spout with tape. No effect. I figure the slight flatness with mute is due to an effective lengthening of the tuba by the height of the mute- but why addition of the bell (sans mute) doesn't lower the whole thing substantially is beyond me. Baffled still-
Henry