Re: Re: Re: Cerveney Eb


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Posted by Rick Denney on November 18, 2002 at 11:19:38:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Cerveney Eb posted by Sven Bring on November 18, 2002 at 10:41:02:

Been there, done that. I once owned a Musica F tuba, of very similar design to the small Cerveny. The issue is the same as with the Eb. Notes that require the fourth valve in the low register are difficult to center as if they don't naturally resonate with the instrument. When I first got the Musica, I was using a contrabass mouthpiece, and my teacher led me to a PT-64 (it was a PT-9 in those days), and it seems to me the mouthpiece for the traditional rotary F tubas. But the low notes were still uncentered.

The point of using a characteristic mouthpiece is to avoid sabotaging the sound of the instrument in the range where it works to gain illusory improvement in the range where it doesn't. A Conn Helleberg might help with that low C (Bb on the Eb tuba), but it will suck some of the character out of the sound in the upper register.

A more extreme example illustrates this more clearly. I can put a small-shank tuba mouthpiece in a euphonium, and have done so as an experiment. I put a Wick 1 in my Besson euphonium. It sounded like a tuba with that mouthpiece--like a small, stuffy, unfocused tuba. If my chops were much stronger, I might have produced a better sound, but it still would have been a tuba sound. With a euphonium mouthpiece, however, it sounds like a euphonium. If I put a euphonium mouthpiece in a contrabass tuba, it sounds like a euphonium--a particularly unfocused, out-of-tune, flatulent euphonium, but a euphonium nonetheless. Again, I'm not good enough to make the combination sound good. The point is that the mouthpiece is a critical component of the sound of the instrument, and must be consistent with it.

Some players see the bass tuba as a small and agile contrabass-like tuba, and want it to be useful for the general tuba literature. These people need a bass tuba that works like a contrabass. It seems to me that if it works well with the same sort of mouthpiece you'd use on a contrabass, then it probably will not have the fuzzy low register.

Others want their bass tuba to be a different instrument, just as the euphonium is different from the tuba. They expect to use it on literature designed for the bass tuba, and not for the contrabass or tenor tuba (aka euphonium). So, just as we use a tuba mouthpiece on a Bb tuba and a euphonium mouthpiece on a euphonium, they will choose a true F tuba mouthpiece for the bass tubas of that class, to get a sound that exemplifies the uniqueness of the F tuba. That is what Jay means by the term "characteristic." Most rotary F tubas fall into this category, the Cerveny included, though they vary widely within the category.

Those who want their bass tuba to be like a contrabass except that it is small and agile will want a bass tuba that works similarly to a contrabass tuba. My little Yamaha 621, despite its small size, does just that, and it sounds and works well with a contrabass mouthpiece. Others include the large Willsons and others of that style (like the Willson Eb that Jay uses when he wants a contrabass quality without giving up small size and agility). Again, within the category they vary widely.

So, trying to make a bass tuba that was designed to be a true bass tuba work well with a contrabass mouthpiece may require too much work (and more ability than I have). It could diminish the qualities of the instrument while not really making it work as a contrabass.

Rick "presuming to answer a question directed to Jay" Denney


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