Posted by Jay Bertolet on March 09, 1999 at 09:41:46:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Projection posted by Pete on March 09, 1999 at 04:33:30:
Effective ways to deaden the bell are numerous. I've heard of guys tightening a belt around the bell. I've seen guys make a ring of duct tape that is attached to the outside of the bell (I always wondered how they ever got this off...). My opinion is that there are really only 3 ways I would use to deaden the bell of any of my instruments.
First, you could cut the bell in half and install a collar to make the bell a detachable type bell. King and York made tubas like this and I've seen guys do this to all types of instruments. The trick here is that the collar, which is attached to both halves of the bell, is made of very thick metal which deadens the bell.
You could also do something similar to the detachable bell idea which is to solder inside the bell a "doughnut" of material called a "tone ring". This is what the Meinl-Weston 2165 tuba uses. Such doughnuts are usually made of 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick metal and could be made of any of a number of materials. Most are made of metal but I've heard of at least one being made of ceramic. The advantage here is that you don't have to cut the bell and nobody ever sees the ring so the horn is still cosmetically acceptable. I'm sure you could also attach this ring to the outside of the bell, but you'd have to remove the bell to do it if the ring was one piece.
The third way, which is the way I used on my 6/4 Cervany tuba, is to solder on the instrument deadening strips. These strips are made out of 3/8 inch solid half round wire stock and vary in length between 6 inches and 18 inches. The reason I chose the strips is because they are easier to hide, they can be put more places on the tuba, and they are really inexpensive. Also, wire is much easier to bend and form to the shape you want so the repairman who did the work on my tuba had no problems installing the strips. He was able to install strips in the bell (4, 18" each) and on the bottom bow and top bow. All the strips are inside the bell, on the inside curve of a bow, or on the back of the tuba so the cosmetic aspect of the tuba was unaffected.
It should be noted that deadening the bell is only a start. Especially on larger instruments, the bottom and top bows can be very large and are subject to lots of sympathetic resonance. I believe that deadening these bows along with the bell produces better results than just the bell alone. I don't think it is a coincidence that most of the large tubas that are generally considered to be high quality have a very large bottom bow. The bottom bow on the Yorkbrunner had to be hand made it was so large. Also the old Holton and York tubas. But the difference between those tubas and the ones made today is that the bottom bows made today are of a thinner metal, so they vibrate more. I have gotten good results with the tuba I've experimented with and would recommend the procedure for other similar tubas.