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Concerning false tones: is their clarity/precision/other adjectives I can't think of, more a matter of the instrument? I've read on here that people use their false tones in place of fingered notes at times. Are false tones more clear/precise on some horns more than others?

To be honest, I haven't spent a great deal of time working on them, but I can get them out, they're just not as clear or resonant as a "regular" note.

Thoughts on this? Any ways you guys have practiced false tones? Can they sound as full and focused as a "regular" note?

Sorry, lots of questions in here. Feel free to answer any or all of them. Thanks!

"False pedal" tones do work better on some tubas than others. Most sousaphones have good ones, and old BBb King tubas are among the best. The small Olds and Conn 11J + 12J are also very good. What they seem to have in common is a true conical bore in the bugle part.

Bessons and Yamahas (YBB-201 + 321, for example) seem to have much weaker false pedal tones, at least in my experience. What those instruments have in common is a "exponential", rather than conical, bore.

I could give a mathematical description of that difference, but it's plainly visible if you look at the instruments and imagine what they would look like if straightened out.

I can not give a technical explanation of why conical tubas have the best false pedals.