TubeNet

Stay away from the Yamaha Silent Brass system for tuba!

Whereas all the other versions are good, the tuba version is far too bulky, complicated, and first of all it is far too heavy.

Your tuba will loose its balance. The top will tend to tip over.

I have many brasses and Silent Brass for just about the most of them.

I also have a fairly extensive miking and amplification system, where I have turned other makes of practice mutes into amplified mutes.

The sonic results were satisfying, but I soon learned to relate the sound of the non-amplified mutes with the result of open playing. So I dropped the usage of the amplification systems.

My practice mutes of choice for tubas are Denis Wick and Humes & Berg. There are newer and more sophisticated brands, but I haven’t tried them.

Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre,
who sold his Silent Brass for tuba to a young and strong player for a very symbolic price, as that player could not afford any new practice mute.

As already mentioned my reservation against the Silent Brass system is only directed towards the tuba version. OK, the version intended for trumpets and cornets only will sit securely in large symphony trumpets, whereas the adhesion area is too small with cornets in Eb and Bb.

The euphonium version is superb as it does not affect neither the weight nor the balance noticeably.

Musically it drags my set-up of a YEP-641 and a modified Yeo signature bassbone mouthpiece a bit flat in the very high range. I can’t do these upper range stunts any more, but I considered the intonation tendencies of the mute beneficial for my practice work.

I am the rotten type, who gets bored, when he knows the music too well. So I have done a few too many improvisations and taking the euph part up an octave. But I felt confident, when I knew, that I would have the surplus not to come out flat (and then I had written a lot of the arrangements myself).

I also like the Denis Wick euph practising mute, but that one raises the upper octaves, so that one may experience some bad surprises about ones ear-embouchure co-ordination in live situations.

The two sections of the Silent Brass euph mute are prone to come apart, when the glue hardens. To be in good company: it didn’t happen only to me. Steven Mead told me, that he had had the exact same experience. The repair shop of my provider cleaned the surfaces and used silicone glue, which still does its job now 8 years later.

Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre