What is decibel level/range of a tuba?

[Kevineckelkamp]

Must be loud since tubas are heavy metal a lot of the times lol. Butt seriously i wanna know

[thevillagetuba]

Here is a discussion on TN that should help to provide some light on the subject:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=32883&start=12" target="_blank

[The Big Ben]

Here is a discussion on TN that should help to provide some light on the subject:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=32883&start=12" target="_blank" target="_blank

I get just *so excited* when the engineers start throwing numbers at me!

[hup_d_dup]

The thing that surprised me when I started playing tuba after years on the trumpet was not how loud the instrument can play, but how quietly. I can hold a tone on my tuba that if there is even a slight ambient noise (say, room ventilation), the tuba is inaudible. I know I am still playing because I can feel the buzz on my lips. This is absolutely impossible to do on a trumpet (for me anyway) because the buzz dies long before I can get down to an inaudible dynamic.

Hup

[southtubist]

Years ago, back when I was a really under-developed player, I measured my peak volume at 127 decibels on an F at the bottom of the staff. That was sustained for about a second on an MW 2145 small valve with a Laskey 30G.

Nowadays I play an Alexander with an old Bloke Symphony. I never hear myself when playing loud in an ensemble, but all the recordings I've listened to [of myself] are pretty hilarious. I get in trouble a lot for playing too loud, but it never sounds "loud" to my ears. That is due to my sound being really consistent from ppp to FFF, even on short/accented stuff.

I assume that I'm a little louder now? I've never had trouble being heard- even over 40 trombones and 4 other tubas, on a pedal C. . . It would be a fun experiment to re-measure my volume, perhaps with an LM 12.

[eupher61]

Sound pressure varies greatly from person to person, instrument to instrument, hammer size and material to hammer size and material.