When you come down from the panegyrics, you rather will be happy that I pulled the brake on your hype. If the changes in the DW designs were much more than a combination of making all of their models heavyweight without the booster known from their smaller mouthpieces and of making a visual reshuffle to reinvigorate their sales, then all makers would follow their lead.iiipopes wrote:
So, back to where we were, I will still accept your apology, for whether you meant to or not, it was still snide, and you were out of line taking a personal shot, instead of merely stating, like the other gentleman above, that his experience was different in not noticing any difference between the new and old style 3L. Your subsequent post was nothing but a justification for your prior remark.
You have historically been a most useful resource for a lot of tuba related issues. Up until now, I have also read with appreciation your posts and benefitted from your experience and insight. You have also indicated some personal circumstances that you were dealing with to try not to compromise the high level and integrity of your posts. We all have respected that. Your prior two posts are not doing anything to maintain that respect.
I used to play the DW 1L on my 981. I found it restricting to my dynamic and range potentials, so I contacted Bob Tucci in Munich on the phone. He is very helpful aside of his evident competences as a player and designer. However he found my choice among his models out of line with my tuba. Yet he sent me a PT-50.
It arrived a Saturday morning at the post office. I took it back before noon and tested it. I found the sound too bright and started doing my usual opening of the backbore testing it all the time on the 981 and the Conn 26K, my only basses back then. I went directly for the sore spots. The range just above the pedal on the 981 was improved, but did not become perfect. Actually I don't expect mouthpieces to solve my problems. I just want them out of harms' way. That is: I want the space to let the embouchure muscles work freely, which includes the sense of resistance created by the combination of mouthpiece and instrument. Then at one point of the modification one part of the modification made an odd problem from the DW 1L era disappear. The range above the 9th partial on the 26K was no longer flat. I could direct the air sufficient effective to play in tune up there. If the high notes make good standing waves on their own, they are much more likely to ring along as overtones, when lower notes are played. That gives richness to the sound and removes the sense of stuffiness.
I played that mouthpiece a few hours ago, as it still is my only mouthpiece to be used on my large receiver tubas and sousaphones in Eb and BBb. I bought a second sample of the PT-50 from Bob Tucci. That one has been much less modified, as I wanted it as a brighter alternative for pushing the tempo in band marches on my very mellow York Master BBb tuba. It never came into real use, as I don't like its less than full sound.
My first day with the originally bought PT-50 had elements of disaster to it. I had suffered an allergic stomach problem a couple of days before. One can recover rather fast from these as compared to attacks by bacteria and vira. Only I had not realised, how much I had dehydrated. The afternoon had a surprise celebration of a section mates' 40 years work jubilee. I happened to be the only tuba showing up. The hostess had given me a 1.5liter bottle of water, which I had half emptied while waiting outside before the performance. Suddenly during one of the light pieces my lungs went totally dry. The larger mouthpiece had caused a larger turnover of air. The temperature was high, and I had no spare water in the body. Dry lungs are stiff and playing looses efficiency. So I put down the tuba after that number and ran out for the remaining water. At each break between numbers I drank heavily. I didn't blame the mouthpiece, as it is just a pick-up tool for the player's buzzed air. And I tried to become more aware always having a large bottle of water available when playing.
This was a report on parts of my first day with a PT-50. There is a funnier story of what happened later that day, but that story was already told back then in 1999.
I have given an apology for a geographical misreading a few days ago. I don't know if that has started a new trend of wanting apologies from me. There will be no one for my previous postings on this thread, as I have been very kind on your postings (also on the newbie thread).
Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre
