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The Wick mute worked great on my Willson Eb when I had it. I think they were originally designed with the Besson Eb in mind. It works well on my Miraphone Bel Canto F. The fit is ok on my 1960s 186, but I added some velcro and leftover Balu corks to really get good use out of it on that horn. It comes no where close to fitting in my big, old Cerveny Kaiser with the stock corks, but I haven't really tried to make it work. I use the big Balu for that horn.

I haven't used a H&B mute in a while to give it any good comparison though.

The mute is for 4/4 or F tuba bells, but can be modified to fit a 6/4 for about $10 at a hardware store. Chris Olka modified his and asked to borrow mine to shoot the All Star Orchestra in NYC. He showed me how to modify it to fit his Yamayork and my Nirschl. I will try to post pics tomorrow.

Tried to upload twice...didn't work for some reason. I emailed the pic to bloke's aol midsouthmusic account. Maybe he could post?

It's 1 inch diameter pipe insulation with velcro attached at the same parts where the corks are.

I have a Wick aluminum mute that I use with my Miraphone 191 BBb. I had to shave the corks just a little to get it to fit.

I have a Schlipf mute for my 6450, it works great!

Here is the picture that Wes was going to post:

Thanks for posting my pic guys. I measured and cut the foam, stuck the already cut/sized velcro in the right places and viola. Only took 5-10 minutes to do, less than $10 and the removable-ness of it makes it work for either a 6/4 or 4/4 horn. I took off one of the pieces and placed it in the handle for the picture purpose to show the velcro parts better.

Bloke, the position of the foam actually helps this mute fit further into the bell of the 6/4 tuba and helps it actually function like a mute should. Usually, adding extra cork to the existing corks keeps the mute the same distance out on each horn, regardless of bell size, but the space between the mute and the actual bell increases on the bigger bell, which lessons the mute's effect on the sound. This design actually has the mute much further in and minimizes that space.

My opinion of course doesn't carry much weight, but Chris Olka's should hopefully carry a bit more than mine and hopefully he can chime in on his design idea and it's pros/cons.

If the Wick aluminium mute still has the same dimensions as it had before 2000, it is dimensioned very specifically for the Besson 981/982 Eb tubas.

Klaus