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Hello,
I recently got a new horn but while checking it with a tuner everything is showing extremely sharp. Will this resolve over time?

If a German horn, it is possible it has a Euro tuning slide in (it A=443)---who is the maker?

Try a different mouthpiece. possibly use a tuning bit and see it it's any better.

bisontuba wrote:If a German horn, it is possible it has a Euro tuning slide in (it A=443)---who is the maker?

It's a PT3 4+1

58mark wrote:I would have somebody else play it and maybe try a larger mouthpiece

I'll try that, right now I'm playing with a PT-49

I bet a quarter the mouthpiece won't make enough difference. I assume it seats OK, with some shank visible outside the receiver.

How sharp is it? About A=443hz?

cddtuba wrote:

bisontuba wrote:If a German horn, it is possible it has a Euro tuning slide in (it A=443)---who is the maker?

It's a PT3 4+1

It's probably this

Pull the slide way out. Not that uncommon.

I have a PT-3 CC 5V rotary and it tends to be on the sharp side overall, but its main tuning slide is fairly long so it generally plays fine with the tuning slide most of the way out when the indoor temperature is on the warm side. On my horn the open G's are quite sharp so they need to be played 1-3 for sustained notes. For the hot outdoor gigs I will use a sousaphone tuning bit which is just enough to make A=440 at about 95 degrees. Earlier today I played an outdoor Memorial Day gig on a PT-20 which has similar intonation tendencies to the PT-3 but with less variation. At about 60 degrees temperature at the start, I had to lip up the Bb tuning note with the slides in all the way in. In my experience the tuba is the instrument most affected by the ambient temperature when it comes to tuning.

I noticed the first time I went to a substantially larger bore tuba (my HS sousaphone at @.690 something) to a .770 German tuba, that my slide needed a long pull to get down to pitch. (Okay we're talking 1964) That corrected itself in a few months as I learned several things. One was to blow the air bigger and not quite as fast. The other was to keep the tongue a bit lower in the mouth. Using the OO or UU syllable and tonguing behind the "LOWER" teeth all helped deal with this larger horn. When I eventually tried a huge Conn recording bass, I felt the same issues coming from the 186. But there are tubas out there now that are intended to adust up to A=443. On the humorous side, one top tier player mentioned to me once, that if I had an older A=440 tuba and he called me to sub, I would need to bring my hacksaw as that orch frequently migrated up to 443. Manufacturers today do understand that need, so the old addage of pulling a half inch is sort of... well ... an old adage.

bloke wrote:I hope you didn't buy it from me.

Does blokebrass come with a "plays in tune or your money back" guarantee?

Try setting the main slide at a "reasonable" spot and singing then playing open C's with a drone. You might just need to calibrate yourself.

If not specified otherwise, it is most probably a 443 WITH a slight pull @ room temperature to fit "flat players" and colder environment.

3 hz adds close to 12 cents to that, equal to ~0.7" more on the MTS
Every degree C/K would equal 3 cent (0.17" on MTS)

(CC tuba numbers)

bloke wrote:

Donn wrote:

bloke wrote:I hope you didn't buy it from me.

Does blokebrass come with a "plays in tune or your money back" guarantee?

Any tuba that I sell will play in tune to ~my~ satisfaction.

"Plays to my satisfaction or DOUBLE your money back!!"

You must put that on your web site. (When you finally get one)

Deeper cup will make a difference. I could not use anything but my PT64S because anything deeper was 20 cents flat with the slide all the way in. Got a 443 slide, have not really spent much time with it (playing venues closed up for what we call "summer" here, which for the next week is low 100s) but on first blush the mpc I want to use, which is my Jim Self, seemed to be on pitch with the 443 slide as the PT64S was with the 440 slide. So I "assume" that using the PT64S with the 443 slide, I could pull the slide a tiny bit, and not have to lip anything dramatically up. So I'd expect a deeper cup, should you want to use one, might help. Or like others said, just pull the slide. That's what it's there for....

What horn did you play prior to the new one?

Also I assume the horn is free from obstructions and is not in need of maintenance.