mute intonation

[ken k]

Since we seem to have had a few mute posts i will add another one.

I have an old Boosey & Hawkes Imperial Eb tuba. I bought the large Humes and Berg Symphonic aluminum mute (beautiful mute btw) but when I use it my pitch goes up a good 30 cents and i do not have enough tuning slide to bring it down to pitch.

Any of you Besson/Boosey players out there have any suggestions as to which mute to use that will not effect the intonation so drastically? I even had my son hold them ute out of the bell a good 6 inches and it still was sharp and then the change in tonal color is hardly noticable. (Which I have always felt the change in timbre for a tuba with a mute is marginal anyway)

Has anyone used the H&B fiber stonelined mutes?

ken k

[imperialbari]

Is there a chance that you tense your embouchure, when the mute is employed? Everybody goes sharp with a mute, this is a big amount, 30 cent.

Klaus

[ken k]

Considering the bell size (whether you have the 15" flare or the 19" flare), I'm pretty sure I would have tried the #206 (and not the #208) in that particular instrument.

fwiw, my #206 only raises the pitch on my B&S F (probably roughly the same size bell) just a bit. I only pull out the slide to adjust when I have plenty of time to push it back in after mute removal.

The #208 ("large") is known to be "squirrely". You can friction-fit a Pringles can (both ends removed) or a piece of small-gauge vent pipe (same diameter and cut to the same length) into the #208 to make it behave better, but (again) I wouldn't use the #208 on anything but a tuba with a very large diameter bell throat.

This is the 208 "symphonic" according tot he WWBW site, but it goes way down into the bell. When the mute is in the bell only the top "bowl" shaped portion sticks out of the top. The corks are 5/8" thick. i wonder if they have been shaved down? they do not look that way howevwer. They look stock. i honestly do not see this fitting in a 186 size bell or a larger Besson type BBb bell, which have a wider throats than my boosey. I have the 19" bell on mine but the throat of the bell is not very wide.

ken k

[ken k]

This is the 208 "symphonic" according tot he WWBW site, but it goes way down into the bell. When the mute is in the bell only the top "bowl" shaped portion sticks out of the top. The corks are 5/8" thick. i wonder if they have been shaved down? they do not look that way however. They look stock. i honestly do not see this fitting in a 186 size bell or a larger Besson type BBb bell, which have a wider throats than my boosey. I have the 19" bell on mine but the throat of the bell is not very wide.

ken k

Yes, and (to be more clear and more direct) I am emphatically suggesting that - for that tuba - you should have acquired a #206, rather than your #208.

but wouldn't the 206 go down even farther in the bell?

[iiipopes]

Temporarily tape about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick pieces of cork to the existing corks to see if that helps. There is a balance between the mute being tight enough to get its tone, and so tight that a player encounters pitch problems. Too much cork and the mute won't get its tone, but if you start thicker, then you can shave cork until you get a good compromise between tone and intonation.

And you probably should have gotten the other mute.

[ken k]

i bought the mute used from someonw on tubenet actually (don't recall whom) so I am not 100% sure which one I have. As i look at the pictures on the WWBW site it looks like I might have the 206. There seems to be more of a flare to the bottom of the sides of the mute and the bowl on the bottom doesn't look as deep as on the 208. Of course it is hard to tell form the small pix on the website. I originally thought the 208 was the "symphonic" model but it looks like both the aluminum mutes are "symphonic" models evidently.

Bloke, can you give me dimensions for the 206 mute so I can check my mute? length? circumference at the widest point? diameter of the opening? etc?
k