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You didn't say whether the change good or bad. The leadpipe is about a 7th of the length of the horn and will usually have only that much effect unless there is a big blob of pitch or something in it. Be careful that there are no leaks influencing your findings. mike

The very beginning of the new leadpipe is probably quite a bit larger than the old one.

You might want to search for posts by Matt Walters on "Old Tubnet". You might want to add the words "receiver" or "AGR" to your search string. There are several posts about leadpipes, receivers, and the feel of how something plays.

Now that you've changed the horn, it would be very interesting to see if mouthpieces made any difference; if using a smaller throat would make the horn more responsive and take less air again with the same general cup...

This is off the Smith-Watkins custom high brass website, but the generalities apply:

"Additional Notes

Playing can become harder/stuffy with an instrument combination which is too large or too small.

A large pipe often makes the sound darker; a smaller pipe can make the sound brighter.

Other pipes are available, but are only recommended after consultation.

Use these notes for guidance in conjunction with the published chart."

http://www.smithwatkins.com/products/le ... rumpet.htm

Notice not much is said about intonation.

OTOH, here is what is said about leadpipes by Rich Ita about the Pilczuk, which is probably the extreme example, having custom milled "steps" in the pipe in order to get the best intonation possible:

"[Pilczuk's] experiments and research told him that there was no organization, consistency, absolute control, or definition in a tapered leadpipe. The nodal and anti nodal patterns were not clear. There were only vague response waves, chopped and crowded on one end, overlapped in the middle, and stretched out on the other end. Waves seemed to travel about the pipe at leisure with no accuracy, no definition, and seemingly no purpose."

http://www.brassinstrumentworkshop.com/ ... pipes.html

Belltrouble wrote:It appears that I learned something,live is made up from Trial and error,isn´t it?

Although the instrument is still playable,search goes on,this time for a leadpipe of original/genuine layout to fit Boosey&Hawkes Imperial/ Besson New Standard BBb tuba,
somebody around who has a dust-covered example of one of those lingering in his draws?.... Kurt

Kurt....

Even if you found an original pipe, it would be very difficult to re-bend it to suit. After annealing and filling with pitch, sometimes leadpipes can be bent a little further but it's normally not possible to reverse or change the existing bends.

Maybe you need to go back to 'square one'. Develop a measurment of the overall length of the pipe and the desired outside diameters of the ends and I'll see if there is a straight pipe that will work. I have several straight pipes here and will see if a section of any of them will work. It will be filled with pitch and you can bend it yourself. If you want me to bend it, you can send me a model of the shape of the pipe and we can see how close we can come.

I've always heard that the 'lead-pipe' is the most important part of the horn... like the 'pre-amp' in a stereo system. A bocal (crook or lead-pipe) for a bassoon can cost $700 - $800.

There's a horn player in one band I play in who has a triple horn (forget the make). In the first year he got it, another horn player accidentally nicked his lead-pipe and put a small dent in it. Ever since then he never lays his instrument down. Even takes it to the rest room with him (not sure what he does with it in there ).

Rick F wrote:.....In the first year he got it, another horn player accidentally nicked his lead-pipe and put a small dent in it. Ever since then he never lays his instrument down. Even takes it to the rest room with him (not sure what he does with it in there ).

Those horn players are little different, aren't they?

The rate of taper in the leadpipe has the most significant effect on how a horn plays/feels. A quick taper ( meaning it expands to the bore diameter quickly and doesn't take the entire length of the leadpipe to do so ) will not slot as easily, but it will be freer blowing. A long taper with slot well, but not be as free blowing.

In the horn world Lawson has even created a leadpipe with a double taper to even out the frequency response across the entire range. With the horn I was more concerned on the effect the taper had on the high range, but I have the feeling that will be change to how it effects the lower range on tuba.

The leadpipe's taper will effect the intonation, feel, ease of play. You can completely change a horn from a dog to a great player with a leadpipe change. Unfortunately it can work the other way around also.

Of course with the tuba having many different bore sizes( on the same tuba even ) and leadpipe lengths ( piston tubas seem to have much shorter leadpipes ) it becomes a much more difficult science to create a leadpipe that complements a particular tuba.

One only has to try a Besson 981 EEb against a 982 to see the difference a change in leadpipe alone makes. Can change the sound, response and feel.

Good luck Kurt!