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For a variety of reasons I won't go into, I've been thinking a lot about the Silent Brass system. I know a lot of people who own one don't actually use the electronics, but I've found it be useful at times. Okay, not terribly useful, but fun at least. Of course, the sound quality is not very good, but the form factor of the mute is the thing that bothers me more. I have a Wallace practice mute that I use most often (the blue one) and I was thinking of ways to possibly retrofit it to be used with the electronics from Yamaha. I was wondering if anyone has tried this and any pitfalls that you may have encountered or can foresee.

My current plan: Originally I had thought of salvaging the pickup from the Silent Brass and simply installing it in a different mute. However, I feel an improvement in the sound quality may be possible using something along the lines of a lavalier mic. They range pretty drastically in price so I would have a cheap option for a proof of concept and could upgrade if I felt it was worth it or if I run into problems with low frequency response. The basic theory should work as I have read about a trumpet player who used the SB system plus a lavalier mic as a personal monitor in performance.

If anyone was interested in an update, I received lavalier a mic today and did a quick and dirty test. I dangled the mic down the vent hole of the Wallace mute. While the mic runs much too hot to use the basic mic input on my computer or cell phone, it works quite well with the personal studio for the silent brass system. It actually sounds not unlike a tuba! Next step is to drill a specific hole for it and mount the mic with some sort of shock mount. I'll post pictures and a recording when the project is done.

I bought years ago Silent Brass mute for euphonium. I wrapped just more foam around it so it seals to my tuba. Sound ? Not beautiful but actually you can use electronics and make some "tubasoundlikepractice". Useful ? Maybe not to all but to me it works nicely enough. Can practice whenever I wish.