Raw brass etc.

[windshieldbug]

The real question is does a cheese-plated tuba sound better than a silver-plated tuba?

Depends on who's doing the grating!

[prototypedenNIS]

I've noticed birghter with an unlacquered bell...

for how noticeable, that would rely partially on how thick the lacquer was in the first place. On my (at the time) Yamaha 354 tbone, it was lacquered thick and I noticed a much livelier and brighter horn.

[MaryAnn]

Coupla things from the horn world.

Walter Lawson, who makes custom horns, did an experiment with lacquer vs no lacquer. He measured the frequency output of an unlacquered horn and then lacquered it and measured the frequency output. It was missing 5% of the high frequencies post-lacquer.

Brain Holmes, professor of cryogenic physics at San Jose State (or someother U around there) is a fine horn player who gives physics of brass instrument lectures at horn workshops. He says that the shape of the air column determines the characteristic sound of the instrument. That is, a concrete flute, if the inside is shaped the same as the inside of a gold flute, will sound the same given the same input.

Now, the truth has to be in there somewhere. Many of us have noticed that a less dense instrument responds more easily than a more dense instrument; whether it sounds the same....we wouldn't be able to tell, because you'd have to put a hellava thick coat of whatever on the outside of it to make it noticibly more dense (heavier metal simulation) enough to affect the response.

I think the more difficult variable is what would be done to buzz into the instrument, that would be a constant; even the same person blowing the same notes on two different days (gotta give the lacquer time to dry) would be a variable; the buzzer would go for his characteristic tone without conscious intention.

I'm thinking it doesn't make much difference, no matter how much we like to talk about it. I bought my horn based on ....you guessed it, ergonomics, and ease of playing it. I figured I could fix the tone if I didn't like it. Which I didn't, and I fixed it with a new, heavier bell.

MA

[iiipopes]

And then there's the pipe organ made out of marble:
http://www.blackiris.com/organs/iof/iof9.htm

[tofu]

The real question is does a cheese-plated tuba sound better than a silver-plated tuba?

Depends on who's doing the grating!

But do you go raw with your cheesey tuba (let the mold grow till it turns green) or do you lacquer it to preserve the cheese!

[windshieldbug]

But do you go raw with your cheesey tuba (let the mold grow till it turns green) or do you lacquer it to preserve the cheese!

I think by definition it must be lacquered, otherwise by getting crusty and hardening it would change the density if the cheese, and also probably affect the air column by first expanding, then contracting, thus changing the sound!

[XtremeEuph]

sounds pretty neat actually....interesting