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Hey Everyone,

Our brass band is venturing pretty deep into the test-piece section for brass banding and I am seeing the need for a mute more and more often. I was curious if any of those owners of the Willson 3050s or 3100s have found a good aluminum mute or something of the like that fits the bell shape for those situations?

Thanks,

Jess

Here's a mute that I put together last week. It's two flower pots from Kmart and a washbasin that I found in my basement. Sounds great, is easy to insert and remove, and requires no tuning-slide adjustment. Total cost less than $20. I may decide to spray-paint it before my next concert.

I use the Denis Wick mute (http://www.amazon.com/Denis-Wick-Straig ... +tuba+mute" target="_blank) with my Willson 3100. Just sand the cork a bit on the upper end and it holds well.

I'd go with the flower pots. It's fantastic, shall definitely try making one for myself!

Art Hovey wrote:Here's a mute that I put together last week. It's two flower pots from Kmart and a washbasin that I found in my basement. Sounds great, is easy to insert and remove, and requires no tuning-slide adjustment. Total cost less than $20. I may decide to spray-paint it before my next concert.

NewMute-Side.jpg

This is genius. If I could patch this together I might try it. Although the denis wick would be great too. IOS, how do you shave the cork down?

Use a medium grit sand paper (#100 will do) and a sanding block (a piece of 1 X 3) and away you go.

Today I put a lot more info about my mutes up onto my website, in case anyone is interested:

http://www.galvanizedjazz.com/tuba/TubaMutes.html

-Art-

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=45232&p=410720&hilit=mute#p410720" target="_blank

I've been thinking of getting one of these cheerleader megaphones to use as a basis for a mute for my 185. Even with shipping they are pretty cheap. Come in a variety of sizes & colors such as metallic gold. Can even be personalized with school name or your own name etc. Plus, just after a concert, pop your end piece off and use it as a megaphone for shouting directions, thanks or insults at your departing audience.

http://www.spiritaccessories.com/store/Megaphone.html

Thanks for that cheerleader megaphone link, Tofu. I think the 32-inch model might be big enough, for $40. I would want to cut some off the small end to make the opening bigger, so more of the sound would go into the mute. Finding the right end piece would be the next challenge, though. A flat one made of thick plywood will not vibrate much, and will sound dead. A thin one will vibrate like a drum head at its own favorite frequency, which can mess up certain notes. It will need some sort of lightweight plastic dome, roughly 13 inches in diameter. Ideas, anyone?

Art Hovey wrote:I think the 32-inch model might be big enough, for $40. I would want to cut some off the small end to make the opening bigger, so more of the sound would go into the mute. Finding the right end piece would be the next challenge, though. A flat one made of thick plywood will not vibrate much, and will sound dead. A thin one will vibrate like a drum head at its own favorite frequency, which can mess up certain notes.

I've been thinking about that. Since I restore cars of the thirties & old sports cars as a hobby I've got a lot of different materials in my parts bins I thought I would experiment with for that.

It will need some sort of lightweight plastic dome, roughly 13 inches in diameter. Ideas, anyone?

I've got a bunch of old different thickness and materials (plastic, metal/stainless, composites) mixing bowls that my late mother (quite the cook) used and some have a raised inner edge of a 1/2 inch that would fit just inside the megaphone with the outer lip protruding maybe a 1/2 past the outside of the megaphone body providing a flush fit and then I would connect/disconnect with a quick disconnect hook so I could have a variety of effects to choose from and easily changed out with just one megaphone body.

Some salad mixing bowl at the end to keep it clean ?

So I have made the mute out of plastic flower pots and foam matting.

The upside
sounds great and fits well

badside
I am a half step flat

I'd like to see a photo of the mute in your tuba.
Have you tried it in a bigger tuba?

I wonder if changing the size of the opening at the small end (by cutting off some of the cone) will affect the pitch. My mutes have rather large openings and tend to make the tuba play sharp unless the mute has a really big volume. I have not tried reducing the size of the opening.