Mute for Willson 3100 or 3050 ideas?

[tofu]

I think the 32-inch model might be big enough, for $40. I would want to cut some off the small end to make the opening bigger, so more of the sound would go into the mute. Finding the right end piece would be the next challenge, though. A flat one made of thick plywood will not vibrate much, and will sound dead. A thin one will vibrate like a drum head at its own favorite frequency, which can mess up certain notes.

I've been thinking about that. Since I restore cars of the thirties & old sports cars as a hobby I've got a lot of different materials in my parts bins I thought I would experiment with for that.

It will need some sort of lightweight plastic dome, roughly 13 inches in diameter. Ideas, anyone?

I've got a bunch of old different thickness and materials (plastic, metal/stainless, composites) mixing bowls that my late mother (quite the cook) used and some have a raised inner edge of a 1/2 inch that would fit just inside the megaphone with the outer lip protruding maybe a 1/2 past the outside of the megaphone body providing a flush fit and then I would connect/disconnect with a quick disconnect hook so I could have a variety of effects to choose from and easily changed out with just one megaphone body.

[Greg Lecewicz]

Some salad mixing bowl at the end to keep it clean ?

[Jess Haney]

So I have made the mute out of plastic flower pots and foam matting.

The upside
sounds great and fits well

badside
I am a half step flat

[Art Hovey]

I'd like to see a photo of the mute in your tuba.
Have you tried it in a bigger tuba?

I wonder if changing the size of the opening at the small end (by cutting off some of the cone) will affect the pitch. My mutes have rather large openings and tend to make the tuba play sharp unless the mute has a really big volume. I have not tried reducing the size of the opening.