Experiments with the muting of bell front instruments

[imperialbari]

My environment doesn’t allow for unlimited playing hours at full volume.

My lungs don’t like too much resistance, which I have to work on with medication as well as with practising.

Resistance is a good workout for the abdominal muscles.

All in all I am not too opposed to practising with mutes.

With bell-up instruments there are several commercial mutes available. As mentioned in other contexts my current mutes are by Ion Balu of Memphis-TE and supplied by another well-known (on TubeNet) Memphibian. These mutes allow for varying sounds and resistances by means of various cork sizes and placements.

With bell-front instruments the solutions are less obvious. I had made sort of a cup mute out a circular bowl intended for washing-up dishes. I had cut some holes in the side, but the placement of corks and the mounting system were clumsy. The sound was too uneven over the range.

I am no kitchen virtuoso, but I like having good equipment for the most frequent tasks. Last fall I bought square rubber bowls for doing the dishes. This spring it occurred to me, that the square shape alone would close off the bells of the sousaphones and of the York Master less rigorously than the circular bowl out of harder plastic had done.

I have a roll of soft ½” nylon rope, which I cut to get a good length to tie around the rubber bowl and still provide a long loop to be hanged over the edge of the bell. That loop took a bit of adjustment, but I haven’t forgotten everything about making knots. The sound and the resistance may be adjusted by centering or off-setting the bowl position in front of the bell throat. In general the sound becomes dark and punchy. I haven’t tried to record that sound, but I think it would work well with close miking.

Having found out about the usefulness of the rope, I also have made the circular plastic bowl work much better. It has a slightly brighter sound.

By moving the lower end of these mutes with my left hand I can achieve an effect somewhat similar to the hand-in-bell effect of trombones and trumpets. My hand is big, but not big enough for a bassbone, so I already many years ago had started using a Tupperware bowl to augment my hand for that purpose.

Klaus

[imperialbari]

The bonus of my experiments are, that I prefer the rubber/plastic mutes‘ sound over that of most straight mutes (the Ion Balu mutes also are darker than most other straight mutes). And they are way cheaper especially for me, as I have to expect higher shipping costs and hefty import taxes when buying American. I do buy American, but only if there are no local/EU sources.

Klaus

[MaryAnn]

Klaus, maybe I'm not picturing it properly, but if the "mute" is down in the bell, doesn't that raise the pitch? Or maybe that doesn't bother you; it would drive me nuts having the wrong pitch come out the bell, and I'd be changing fingerings mid-stream to try to get the note I hear in my head to come out the bell.

MA