First: I do not believe in electronic enhancements, artificial reverb, or any of that stuff. I think practice rooms that have them only encourage kids to play with a small unconnected sound and not develop any natural resonance in their tone or true smoothness in their phrasing - it is all covered up. I bought the mute for the mute only and am selling the electronics on squeezebay to help offset the cost. With that said....
It may be a Rube Goldberg approach but the dang thing does work. It is freakin' HUGE and kinda heavy but it gets the job done. Since I play rotary horns and hold them not too far off from vertical, the weight just transfers down to the chair and I do not notice it. Would be the same thing for someone using a DEG stand. If you played a piston horn ala York at a 45 degree angle or perched the horn on your legs, you may have some issues with it, but the weight was a nonissue for me. The mute folds up and breaks down, and even comes with a hatbox style case, so it is somewhat transportable.
The response is very good. Yes, it adds a little resistance but I would not go so far as to say it makes the horn play stuffy. Maybe the equivalent of dropping the bore size .020 or so. Both my horns are very freeblowing, so the minor change in resistance is not an issue for practicing. It complements the total lack of resistance from mouthpiece buzzing - my only other real alternative at home now. The added resistance even made a pedal GGG pop out a little easier! The sound is very even top to bottom. I have to work harder to get a bigger sound and play with even more resonance since I am not using any artificial enhancements, but I think after doing this for a few weeks it will have a positive effect on my open horn playing.
It is not silent, but it is relatively quiet. I can play FFFF and it sounds around MP. My son says he can now hear the TV when I play. Even playing soft, the pitches are clearly discernable, so I really see no need for the wunderbox and headphones.
Unlike a few other posters, I did not notice any major intonation shifts in the normal playing range with my horns. Intonation issues did not pop up until the 9th partial - (D above middle C on a CC tuba, or high G on an F tuba). Strangely it was the 9th partial and above on both my CC and F - leading me to think it could be a design issue. But, it was still very workable - and a very resonable tradeoff for having 8 good partials in the cash register (yeah yeah, I know, only slide trombone players can actually use the 7th partial, so it doesn't really count). The 6th may have been a hair lower than usual, but not enough to be of any major concern. Middle, low, and pedal register intonation were virtually unchanged from the open horn (and on the 2155r, I am used to having to really pay attention to it.)
I paid $299 from Giardinelli / Musicians Friend. BUT, I got over $50 for the "personal studio" junk effectively knocking the price down to around $250. Selling my unused piano tools (sans license) covered most of that. Since the mute works equally well on both my CC and F, I figure that is the same as spending $125 on each for a practice mute that may not give the same quality results. I honestly wish I got this a couple of years ago - it truly lets me practice at all dynamics and in all ranges on both my little and big horn. IMHO, it is worth the money.
Overall I would rate the mute a B+. Price and size keep it from getting an A.
Now, I can finally do some serious practice in the apartment while "babysitting" some days and late at night when the kids are asleep. When will I find the time to peruse TubeNet now???
