Improving sharpness of practice mute.

[dopey]

I am using a DW5519 practice mute from Denis Wick, in a Wessex Eb Solo.

The horn without a mute plays dead on in tune. With the mute my Eb is nearly in tune E I don't have enough main slide to compensate. I knew to expect a mute to cause me to be sharp, but I didn't expect this drastic. I thought I ordered the 'right' mute by finding the model on their site or atleast one meant for my size horn:
http://www.deniswick.com/all-products/i ... ctice-mute" target="_blank

How sharp are most practice mutes?

I've heard pairing a mute to a particular tuba is trial and error. Any suggestions for another mute be welcome, or any tips to resolve the sharpness with this one.

Most of the threads I found searching were just bashing mutes, didn't find anything on decreasing the sharpness caused by them other than pulling a slide.

[MartyNeilan]

Have you tried the Pringles can trick?

[eupho]

I am not familiar with the Pringles can trick. Please enlighten me.

[dopey]

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viewtopic.php?f=2&t=36534&start=0" target="_blank


I found two threads about pringles here using google.. (Be surprised how many other threads someone mentioned pringles on a tuba forum..)

I assume you put it in the end/bottom of the mute that is inside the tuba. I am a bit confused what it is suppose to accomplish/do?

On straight/cup mutes with cork down the side i've seen suggestions of adding more to raise the mute up some. This mute doesn't have that, and not sure if adding it so it will wedge in the tuba(thus lifting the mute up some) or not?

I saw in that post Bloke had suggested a different model mute for that person(I think it was a cup/straight), could I be having a similar issue? I bought too large, or otherwise, wrong mute for this size horn? If not the model I bought which?

Thanks for any help.

[dopey]

I obtained a pringles can. It is far too small to fit on it's own into the end. I used some mesh material and plastic to be able to wedge the can into the end of the Mute.

This drasticly changed the sound for the worse(Far more muffled/just bad), and changed the tuning to be better on some notes and worse(flat) on others.

Is the thought that the pringles can 'extends' the length of the horn since otherwise it goes into the open area of mute much sooner? I guess the next step is to adjut the length of the pringles can to see if there is an optimal balance? Perhaps the material I used to wedge the can into place is also having adverse affects on the sound.

Question still stand for any other Wessex owners if they've experimented with practice mutes and found an ideal setup.

[dopey]

Thanks Bloke. I've started my search for cork in Sweden, not sure what their equivilant of a hobby lobby is here:) The bulb part is already as you described, but will try cork to lift up and see if any improvement. I'm afraid doing this will increase the volume when playing though.

Expiremented some with the pringles can and it is definitely better with than without after you adjust to the new sound under the bell.

If I were to look for another mute would a shorter and/or a smaller opening at the bottom of the mute(part into the bell) be the direction to go?