Anbody have plans for a homemade mute?

[sousaphone68]

Hello the test piece for this years championship calls for a straight mute for the tuba and euphonium.
Adam Gorb's Bermuda Triangle Beach Party For Wind Band
The muted passages are long enough not to ignore and would probably sound better if all the low brass were muted.
I have played tuba for nearly 30 years and have only been asked to use a mute 4 times so I am reluctant to spend £200 plus on a dent/scratch maker.
Has anybody made a single use mute out of cardboard or hard board that worked and if yes would they care to share?
The tubas are upright besson 981 and a BH Imperial Bb
The euphs are besson sovereigns.
Thanks in advance

[Michael Bush]

http://tubahead.files.wordpress.com/200 ... ttern2.pdf" target="_blank

[gwwilk]

http://tubahead.files.wordpress.com/200 ... ttern2.pdf" target="_blank

This is an interesting project.

However, the link to the foam board on dickblick.com is dead. This one works: http://www.dickblick.com/products/elmers-foamboard/.

Omitted from the instructions are the math to convert the bell measurements from bell stack diameter to the width of the 4 tapered panels at the bottom. A good place to start is the fact that 1.414 * d/2 = the width of the panel for the diameter of the bell where you want the mute to rest (the bottom of the mute). The mute needs to protrude from your bell, so just make sure your taper allows for the finished mute to slide down to where you want it. 30"x40" foam board would allow 10" of protrusion if you designed your mute to insert to 20" inside your bell. The real challenge is the taper of the mute. Measuring the diameter of your bell at 10" inside might work, depending on the bell flare. That would give you the width of the mute 1/3 along its length and allow you to calculate the approximate panel width at the top of the mute. Since the panels placed side by side bottom to top and top to bottom would form a rectangle whose short side is bottom width plus top width, the foam board should be easy to cut with a tape measure and straight edge. You will probably need two sheets of foam board for each mute in order to make the top and bottom caps, because you're not going to be able to squeeze a CC or BBb tuba-sized mute from a 30"x40" foam board.

Because I'm too old and weak to insert my Balu mute into my Rudy-Meinl Bayreuth while sitting, I haven't tried to use it in ensembles. I might just find a couple of pieces of 30"x40" foam board locally and give this plan a go in order to see how well it works out. Velcro rather than tape would make it possible to disassemble and assemble it for easy transportation. Hmm...

[sousaphone68]

After following the links thank you I was thinking of amending tubaheads idea by using a traffic cone as former for the foam board using six to eight panels and cutting rings from the cone to use as ribs/formers for the mute.
I don't really mind if this stops it from being transported flat as I don't think I will need a mute on a regular basis and it can live in the bandhall after the Championship

[1895King]

I made mine out of a doggy dish I bought at Petcetera. All I did was drill a hole in the center to for a piece of cord to use as a handle. It worked well.

[sousaphone68]

I made mine out of a doggy dish I bought at Petcetera. All I did was drill a hole in the center to for a piece of cord to use as a handle. It worked well.

Was this to use as a practice mute?
What material was the bowl made from?
Thanks

[Michael Bush]

I made a practice mute for my 21J out of aluminum flashing by trial and error. Works fine, but took a long time and a lot of fiddling to get workable intonation.

When I got a small EEb, I bought a Mike McLean practice mute. (Time is money.) When I got a 5J recently, I had to fit a piece of 2" PVC pipe to the McLean to get the intonation to work, but it works well.

My experience was that making a mute was a time and productivity drain. I learned plenty from it, but I'm guessing I'm not too likely to do it again.

[Art Hovey]

Funny you should ask; I just drew up this plan for a colleague. We are doing the Barnes 3rd Symphony in March, and it has divided parts con sordino.

I made mine 45 years ago out of Vinyl floor covering and it still sounds better than any commercially-made mute that I have tried.

http://www.box.com/s/gysqxx4tt0ogqljizg2x

Where it says "door hand" it should say "door handle".

[ralphbsz]

My son had to play with a mute once, in the school band. The band instructor suggested using a foam ball. We found a fuzzy soft soccer ball at home; it's about 10" diameter, foam core, and covered in fake fur. It just sits loosely in the bell. It really dampens the sound of the tuba (this is a full-size MW 25), without changing the tuning appreciably. The tuba seems reasonably playable ... at least my son (who is a beginner) didn't complain terribly about it. I was worried that it might seal the bell too well and create back pressure, but that seems to be no problem (the air can easily leak through the fake fur on the outside). You might want to look for something similar in the toy department of WalMart or Target; it might just work, and the price is right.

Now: in a middle school band you can get away with silliness (like tossing a soccer ball into the tuba) that would get you in serious trouble in a serious ensemble.

[sousaphone68]

Had what I hope was a brain wave thinking of using the traffic cone as a former and making the mute out of paper maiche as I can add or remove material with ease and then varnish it when happy with the mute. Has anybody used paper maiche?

[PaulTkachenko]

I always wanted a mute for very loud live situations for mounting a microphone in. Not sure where I'd start.