Practice Mutes

[The Big Ben]

I moved from a little house into a condo at the end of the summer. In the house, I could practice any time I wanted to and as loud as I wanted. The condo is different.

I have been practicing before 5 PM and haven't gotten anyone angry at me yet but I want to keep it that way.

I have seen the Yamaha Silent Brass system but would rather not spend that much money. There is a Humes and Berg (the red tipped mutes) at a price I would want to pay and a few others. Remember, I'm not looking to have a muted tuba in a performance but a muted tuba for practice. It would be used with a 3/4 sized BBb tuba.

Does anyone have recommendations?

[keegan watson]

I have a Humes and Berg practice mute. The mute works great as far as making the tuba quiet. Depending on how far the mute extends into the bell will determine how much the intonation is affected. In my experience, I have found that if the mute fits further down inside the bell, the intonation is better than if the mute fits in the halfway point between the bell. It has worked well for me on larger horns but on any of my smaller tubas intonation can be off as far as a half step. If you just need to keep your chops in shape in can work but it was always a last resort option for me.

[Gilligan]

Trumcor makes some great practice mutes. I have their trumpet practice mute and it has far less resistance than any other practice mute I've used. It maintains good intonation throughtout the registers and doesn't backup going into the pedals. When I move into an apartment later this year I'll be getting one of their tuba "Stealth Mutes".



They cost $185 to $235 plus shipping. The more expensive model has an adjustable tuning feature.

[TMurphy]

Try the Denis Wick practice mute. It mutes the horn quite well, so you shouldn't have any complaints, and it plays about as freely as a mute can. I've had mine for about 7 years, an I've been happy with it. I can practice in our spare room without disturbing my wife in the next room, let alone the neighbors.

[tubaholic007]

Try the Denis Wick practice mute. It mutes the horn quite well, so you shouldn't have any complaints, and it plays about as freely as a mute can. I've had mine for about 7 years, an I've been happy with it. I can practice in our spare room without disturbing my wife in the next room, let alone the neighbors.

i agree, the denis wick practice mute for tuba is a good one... i tried the yamaha silent brass system and schlipf practice mute no. 5 for tuba. in my opinion, the denis wick is the best choice, even when the yamaha silent brass is really silent (more than denis wick or schlipf).
as to the intonation, yamaha is untouchable, but the tool is too heavy and not very comfortable for use. schlipf is not a good choice IMO, the damping is too little and intonation quite horrible.

i "pimped" my denis wick with some foam rubber inside. now i'm very happy with it - damping is perfect and clanging in ff - fff is now history. intonation is constantly sharp though but can be compensated with the tuning slide.