tuba resonance

[WoodSheddin]

2 - We become mentally occustomed to our tubas vibrations, and only notice the slightly different vibrations on other tubas.

Yup. Same thing happens with people who are buying new mouthpieces all the time. You adapt.

[Rick Denney]

1- The horn gets filled with gunk and becomes more massive, therefore, less easy to vibrate. (not likely)

2 - We become mentally occustomed to our tubas vibrations, and only notice the slightly different vibrations on other tubas.

The damping of that coating of gunk might be noticeable, but probably only on a horn that is exceptionally gunked-up. You'd notice other far more significant effects.

The most well-damped thing we place on out tubas is our bodies. Those surfaces damp vibration, and they also sense vibration while damping it. That sensation quickly fades to a subconscious level. A different instrument vibrates in different places and at different frequencies, and it breaks out of the experience, rising to the conscious level.

If you go from your horn to an instrument that is so massive and well-braced (or damped) that it doesn't vibrate noticeably, it will feel dead to you even though you no longer notice the felt vibrations of your current horn.

As I understand it, we can feel vibrations up to about 500 Hz through our skin. Higher frequences are damped too much before our nerves notice the effects.

Doc asks if it is a good thing or a bad thing. That depends, I think, on your perspective. I find the big Willsons to provide very little resonant feedback through the skin. I have also played many other BAT's that didn't provide much feedback. But the instruments that have moved me the most have provided considerable feedback and have felt alive in my hands. It is true that the vibration really should go out into the hall and not into my hands and lap. But it is also true that we respond through all our senses, and for some players these additional vibrations may provide clues to what they are producing that helps them by a greater amount than what is lost to damping. I don't think there is a fixed answer to this question, because the dynamics affect the player at a subconscious level.

Rick "who gets better results with live-feeling tubas versus dead-feeling tubas, but probably not because of physics" Denney

[Dylan King]

For best resonance, place the horn in just the right spot on your lap and blow. As you blow, it will vibrate. But it must be placed correctly between the legs.

[Kevin Hendrick]

It is true that the vibration really should go out into the hall and not into my hands and lap.

Well, maybe not into the hands ...

Kevin "always in favor of better results" Hendrick

[Rick Denney]

I would like to play a Holton like yours one day just to have the Holton experience.

Come to an Army Tuba Conference reading session and you'll have that opportunity.

But there are Holtons and Holtons. I have played many that did not have the live feedback of my current instrument. Some people don't like it, and instruct the people revising or tweaking the horn to brace it better, and others prefer it, looking for their repair gurus to relieve assembly stresses and other things to increase it. Holton's own manufacturing process was probably too inconsistent for us to be able to say anything as definitive as "the Holton experience."

This inconsistency occurs even at the highest levels, however. I have play-tested Yorkbrunners that felt dead to me, and others that fairly danced in my lap. They all seem to find happy customers, so I don't expect there is a lot of consistency among players in their preferences on this topic.

It is the one characteristic that, to me, separates the good Kings from the so-so Kings, and I've felt it a lot more often with the older 1241's than with the newer (but not newest single-bell version) 2341's. It was also one of the things I liked the most about the Conn 20J.

It would probably be better if I could really tell what my sound was doing out front the way good pros seem to be able to. But I can't, and a horn that talks to me using other senses helps.

Rick "

[Rick Denney]

For best resonance, place the horn in just the right spot on your lap and blow. As you blow, it will vibrate. But it must be placed correctly between the legs.

I use a stand, and I think that helps a bit. It what my hands feel that seems most useful. And, of course, hands are far more sensitive to vibration.

But on my Holton (as with the York on which it was modeled), even a slightly bulging mid-section will rest against the bottom of the bell stack during play. It doesn't seem to hurt the sound, though.

Rick "who thinks that the myth of Donatelli selling the York to Jacobs because he was too portly to play it comfortably is at least plausible" Denney

[Rick Denney]

I love playing the 2xJ because of the feedback vibration. I know when I am rockin with that thing. Played an Accent that was like holding bar bell of wieght. Pretty horn but not much feedback. Recently played a Meinl Weston that was dead too. I had the same feedback with a Conn Eb i was looking at. What do you guys think? Is it cause of the thick gauge of the sheet brass used to make the horn?

No, I don't think the thickness of the brass is the whole story. Thickness affects mass, and mass affects the frequencies at which the brass will vibrate, and also the force needed to establishe that vibration. Bracing has an effect, too. Internal stresses would, I think have a large effect. But the way in which the air inside the horn vibrates probably has the biggest effect. Thus, the design of the instrument is probably first on the list, with mass and internal stresses following.

It is true that most of the really heavy horns I've played have been less lively in my hands than most of the lighter horns, but I've played instruments where the opposite was true.

Fact is, some folks like a horn that doesn't vibrate, and some like a horn that does. For example, my York Master was made by Boehm and Meinl, who also made many of Fred Marzan's tubas, and at about the same time. Yet Marzans made by B&M have a much thinner bell than my YM. Clearly, Marzan wanted more movement from the brass than the B&M folks did when they made the instruments for York. Both are correct approaches--for someone.

Rick "whose heavy Holton seems livelier than his light Miraphone" Denney