Thoughts on a homemade mute

[Tubainsauga]

I've been contemplating making some mutes recently and I was hoping to get some input. The design would be just a basic cone, an overlapped and riveted seam with a birch plywood cap at the top. I would likely have a 3/4" to 1" lip folded over on the small end to make the whole thing a little more rigid.

Does anyone have any thoughts on dimensions or other design considerations? I'm not really looking to make a spectacular mute but rather find a design I can build a couple of times over and possibly donate to a school (so I can stop lending out my mute all the time...) Also, I've been itching to building something for a while.

[sousaphone68]

I tried to make one recently using a traffic cone as a pattern and paper pulp it did not work out to well. The concept may have worked if I had a mute to scale it against and compare tone.
You mention that you have a mute that you loan out so you may have more luck with making one.
There were some good suggestions made when I asked the same question awhile back.
I ended up buying a DW aluminium mute and now that I have one and can hear the effect it has I have realised that my attempt was too short and it sharpened the tuba too much plus I would need to varnish or line the inside to achieve the sound I was looking for.
Good luck with making one
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=48792&p=421196&hilit=+Mute#p421196" target="_blank

[Michael Bush]

Bloke is right, there is a longish thread back there somewhere with useful information in it. I found making a mute to be interesting, but the learning curve is steep. Lots of trial and error at least for me. Assuming your time has value, it is not the way to get a mute for cheap. But it is a good learning experience.

[Bacchanalia]

When digging into this topic myself, to try to build a decent practice mute, I found that pictures of the INSIDE of homemade mutes were practically impossible to find. There were plenty of pics of the "look what I made" variety...but all after the fact. I did find this post somewhat informative: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=47181" target="_blank" target="_blank for inside looks.

From what I'm picking up in lots of posts, the overwhelming majority of folks EITHER have to fiddle with size and other details until they have things just right for a particular tuba, OR they come up with an adjustable tube area, to extend the length down into the horn to get the low register to speak...OR BOTH. Since I'm certain that I'm not currently playing the last tuba that will ever sit in my lap, I think I'll be going with the "extend-a-tube" concept to maximize the possibility of use with at least some other similar sized instruments. And as I'm looking to build a practice mute, the small end will be fashioned to completely seal in the base of the bell...as opposed to cork strips to allow sound around the sides. I'm not as concerned with not altering pitch as I am keeping resistance down and making the playing experience mimic (as much as possible) an UN-muted one.

Being an unapologetic geek, I realize that in the end, I will have probably invested much more time, energy and quite possibly money than if I had just purchased a nice Schlipf practice mute. But where's the challenge in that?? ;o)

If anyone is reading this and thinking, "Man, this guy is completely off base!", please feel free to correct me

[iiipopes]

I'm nearly certain that there was a recent thread on this.

Otherwise, use newspaper (??) to make a pattern to copy someone's successful mute, transfer the pattern to a piece of sheet metal, cut it out, rivet it together, fasten in a wood top, seal it, and cork it.

http://www.tntech.edu/tuba/mutes/" target="_blank

[Alex C]

Riveting the seam is not a good idea because a straight mute must be airtight to be effective. If you have a bunch of rivets you'll have to seal each of them. You might consider glue or the Balu approach which I think is using a heavy cardboard like material for the inside and cover with a wood veneer.

[Bacchanalia]

http://www.tntech.edu/tuba/mutes/" target="_blank

Unfortunately, upon closer inspection, you'll find this: http://orgs.tntech.edu/tuba/default.asp?page=mutes

Why they don't make it more obvious on the other page, we'll probably never know