Musica BBb intonation

[DavidJMills]

Helping a local high school solve problems with their 4 Musica BBbs. They have the clarity of tone and projection that i really like but the area around the F just below the staff is noticably sharp.3rd line D is flat but good with 1/2.What say ye?Thanks, daveMills

[iiipopes]

5th partials on almost all brass instruments, from pic trumpets to BBb kaisertubas are flat. On BBb tuba, this is middle of the clef D, Db, C and B nat. Since B nat is fingered 12, which tends to be sharp, this note is usually alright. Double check to see that there are no obstructions or leaks, and have the horns cleaned and checked for braces. Sometimes, redoing a brace near a node will help matters. Other than that, if it can't be lipped, alternate fingerings will have to do. Good luck!

[DavidJMills]

I understand the flat 5th partial but am puzzled by sharp 3rd partial . Any tweaking in leadpipe? / I've used many different mps. and the intonation with PT 64 and other cup type rather than funnel type helps a good bit. But the F is still noticably sharp.

[imperialbari]

Any brass instrument is a set of compromises, when it comes to tuning. Some are better, some are less good.

Part of handling such problems is to establish reference notes according to which we bend the other notes by means of slide pulling, embouchure adjustments, alternative fingerings, or hand position adjustments (in the bells of French horns).

Most often we take the octave partial series 1st, 2nd, 4th, 8th, or even 16th as the frame of reference and then consider the 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 10th being flat plus the 6th and 9th being sharp.

This approach in general works fine on god trumpets, trombones, and horns.

But in our world of conical brasses things can come out very differently.

A very well known sample is the US Monster Eb tuba as known from several makers from around a century ago.

If they are played with modern mouthpieces the 2nd partial is infamous for going very flat.

My own B&H Imperial British baritone can be considered having an odd scale, if one uses the normal Bb 4th partial as reference note. When I realised, that this note is somewhat sharp, the rest of the tuning equation came out with much better scales.

I have one instrument, which has a sharp 3rd partial (a prototype corno da caccia from Syhre in Leipzig), but as I play it with a large horn mouthpiece, I can control that note.

Musica isn’t a name, which can be trademarked, but I guess, that the ones you talk of are of the Czech/Austrian type, which among others Rick Denney and I discussed on the old TubeNet a few years ago.

They are very similar to some Cerveny/Amati models. These come with mouthpieces, which I find very odd:

Shallow funnels, almost like oversize Bach 12C trombone mouthpieces, and with a very narrow throath. I don’t like the resulting sound, but it suits the dry honking of the Central European marching and polka band tubas very well.

Maybe you will get better results, if you try something like the Bach 22, 24 (non A), or 25. And if you at the same time consider the 2nd and 4th partial Bb’s being a bit flat.

This approach will make the 5th partial D even more flat, but probably no more, than the problem can be solved by alternative fingerings.

Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre

[iiipopes]

Another mouthpiece to try is a Wick 3SL, and also some of the Perantucci "German" line, for the same reasons Klaus said.