Yamaha Silent Brass Mod

[MartyNeilan]

Silent Brass is pretty much my only option for at home tuba playing, especially on my big horn. Tonight, I decided to try something to make it play a little more like an open horn. I took a pair of wrenches and removed the mic / pickup. This left a hole about 3/8" diameter - almost reminded me of the side vent hole in the inexpensive H&B practice mute. The horn plays a little louder but blows a little more free - enough to notice the difference. I would be tempted to try other mods but the SB tuba mute is way too expensive to risk messing up. Since I don't use the electronics anyway, I am almost tempted to put the pickup mic on EBay and just plug the hole if I ever decide to go back.

Anyone else ever tweak a tuba silent brass??

P.S. The trombone version is lightweight and near perfect stock. Too bad the tuba one is a Rube Goldberg.

[KevinMadden]

Well I've heard stories from others at IC of mods, not necessarily to make the horn play easier though..... what they did, was run the pick-ups into a distortion pedal instead of the SB module... TA-DA electric tuba!