Shortening slides

[luke_hollis]

Does having excessive tubing on tuning slides lower the resonance of the horn / notes played on those slides?

I have 4/4 model Nirschl and noticed that the amount of slide I have seems to far exceed the amount I normally pull.

Does that extra slide metal affect the resonance of the horn or would removing a few inches here and there improve anything? Anyone else try or know about this?

Luke

[Dan Schultz]

There are many tubas out there that have much longer slides than seems necessary.

I do think the additional weight tends to decrease what is commonly perceived as 'resonance'... or the vibration of the horn when felt by the player.

However.... I think what we feel and what we hear from our perspective as the player is not what the audience or the recording device hears. Timber is a totally different matter.

As far as shortening the slides goes.... you could simply cut the inner tubes and shove the pieces into the outer tubes where they would be come stationary. Of course, that wouldn't get rid of the weight of the metals involved. To truly shorten the slide, one would have to add ferrules and inner tubing to the circuit and shorten the outer and inner tubes accordingly. That would get rid of weight and possibly modify what we commonly call 'resonance'. Who knows if it would change timber.

[imperialbari]

Indeed: Timber is a totally different matter

[luke_hollis]

Dude, I don't really care all that much. It was just a simple observation that the 4th valve seemed less resonant than the others (but hey I am not giving up my axe), and that there was more slide associated with it.

For cripes sakes, this forum is loaded with posts far more useless than mine.

[tubaguy9]

Dude, if you don't care, why did you ask?
There are some people on here whom know more than most people on the planet, and are more than happy to tell you more than you want to know. Because they care to explain it to a point that they'd be happy with hearing.
Honestly, I'm really honored to be a part of a forum that has people who know whatever you'd want to know, and people who can play the horn.

[TheHatTuba]

This thread makes my cat sad...

Why, does it have a pancake on its head?