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Hello everyone!
I have been asked by my band director to cover a few licks on a bass clarinet part of a piece we are performing soon. The licks move along at a good brisk tempo. My problem lies in my ability to blend with the clarinets and flutes, and saxes and not sound like a euph. I believe a mute would solve my dilema, but money is a problem. C any one suggest a good alternative for a mute?
Thanks.
Ed R.

I have made three homemade mutes using the top quality "presentation boad" that is available from places like Hobby Lobby. I get the hot press version; the cold press may separate when being shaped into a cone. I used wood glue to attach the top and corks. The mute I made for the F tuba worked pretty good, the one for the 7/8 sized CC Weimar OK, and the one for the Kalison looks great, fits great, but has way too many funky pitches. Go figure.

One time, I used a traffic cone. It worked suprisingly well!

Back in 1967 I made some tuba mutes out of linoleum; they worked pretty well and I still have one. I found that you must avoid having the end plate (top) vibrate like a drumhead. That makes certain notes impossible to play. I solved that problem by making the end conical instead of flat. I also found that the best material for the "corks" is soft plastic foam like the stuff that is used around air conditioners. You can adjust the sound by changing how far you push the mute into the bell. (Balu mutes have way too much space between the mute and the bell, in my opinion.) You also need to make the mute pretty long. If it doesn't stick out 10-12 inches from the bell you will have to pull your tuning slide way out whenever you use it.

I sold one of my linoleum mutes to a tubist at Yale who moved to California. Later I read about Roger Bobo using a linoleum mute. -Any connection??

P.S. Cardboard can work almost as well, but won't last as long.

Art Hovey wrote: I found that you must avoid having the end plate (top) vibrate like a drumhead. That makes certain notes impossible to play. I solved that problem by making the end conical instead of flat.

Interesting!
That could possibly explain why my mutes got worse as their diameter increased, even though they were all the same basic design.

Ed ,
I too have covered some bass clarinet parts on my euphonium. I even did so on what was basically a part written like a clarinet choir in the opening of a band piece. It sounded just fine. If your gonna play a euphonium you should sound like a euphonium no matter what part you are playing.

Years ago I was talking to an old-timer in a music/junk shop at the Chinatown end of Pitt St, Sydney(!) ... who mentioned that he'd made an acceptable tuba mute from a disk of heavy (1/8" thick or so) cardboard with a biggish hole cut in the centre. The disk was meant to be placed some distance inside the bell; rubber tubing was to be used to provide a seal against the metal. The idea was to juggle the dimensions until you got the right sound.

I've never tried it. Has anyone heard of this idea or tried it themselves?

I rolled and taped a poster board in a conical pattern for a practice mute. Worked nice because you could readjust for how much sound you wanted.

A euph taking the bass clarinet part works fine in terms of tone color, it's just a bit heavy depending on how the upper parts are scored. A mute may not solve the problem. You might end up with just as much weight (and inherent balance problems), and a tone color that doesn't blend as well as you'd like. If the part is a bit technical and requires you to get around on the axe, that certainly adds to the challenge of playing it uber-soft to stay underneath the woodwind-pickers, but I think that might be your best bet.

In terms of balance, a mute could help. In terms of sonorites and scoring, a straight mute would probably hinder you. A cup mute could be excellent in this situation, but a euphonium cup mute is expensive and almost impossible to find.

Not an ideal answer, I'm sure, but my $.02.

In these types of situations I always reccomend the cup part of a trombone straight/cup combination. You grab it in your non-playing hand, hold it over your bell, and you can direct the sound wherever/however and how much you need to.

And the band may already have one.

Whats the piece you are playing Ed ?

I have a similiar situation going on right now. I am playing 2nd bassoon cues along with the 1st bassoon, and the conductor did not like the timbre even at pp. He asked if I owned a tuba mute, and I flippantly answered that I do not own one on general principle.

However, since he is a cool guy who usually can't get enough tuba, I threw the washcloth I use for mouthpiece condensation down the bell - perfect. Retrieving it was a challenge; I have since tied a shoestring to it for that purpose. The entire band found the entire incident quite amusing.