the elephant wrote:I feel bad for kids who study with a player who is a neurotic about toys to the point that he uses things that would cancel each other out.
Wouldn't that just make him a trumpet operator!?
the elephant wrote:I feel bad for kids who study with a player who is a neurotic about toys to the point that he uses things that would cancel each other out.
chronolith wrote:I don't bother with an AGR. I just stop and rewrap the shank of my mouthpiece with a precisely measured length of scotch tape between excerpts during auditions.
+1!!!bloke wrote:Moving the end of the mouthpiece (which is expanding in size on the inside of the shank) to the choke point of a receiver (where the receiver ends, and where the mouthpipe starts) eliminates any reverse taper in the beginning of the instrument.
No listener can hear a difference, but a player can feel a difference (just as when a little chunk of tooth filling is gone).
Sometimes, eliminating the reverse taper (again: a reverse taper which is caused by some back-end of the mouthpiece receiver being exposed) will slightly speed up low range response (enough to be "helpful"), but not with all makes/models of tubas. Some players seem to believe that adding more of that reverse taper (exposed receiver interior) will make their sound prettier. Again, they may be able to hear something, but - likely - no one else can.
Sousaphone tuning bits (the back-ends of which are always made of one-thickness sheet metal) always introduce a reverse taper in the beginning of an instrument. Two sousaphone tuning bits will offer this event twice, obviously. Oddly (just as - seemingly - does "no reverse taper"), a really long reverse taper (such as with a sousaphone bit) also tends to "tighten up" the low range as a venturi effect begins to occur.
Any good player will adjust to any of these factors being in place or not being in place. There are effects, but (again) the player will either work with them or overcome them - as their playing style will unconsciously dictate...which is why "voodoo" is nearly accurate.
Yes, my inclination was the same as yours, that it is all poppycock. But I am a believer in the trumpet maker Cliff Blackburn (I have a few of his horns) and he believes in the gap so I am find myself forced to admit that there must be something to it. The idea is to have controlled resistance at certain points in the air flow. Not all resistance is bad, according to believers.the elephant wrote:I call "gap theory" persistent bovine feces, just like much of Dave Monette's ideas about mouthpieces. Garbage. Say what you will, if you step back and really think of these things you see they are bunk. Parts need to fit perfectly, and introducing a gap is interference in the air stream. There should be NO gap, ever, IMHO. Just sayin'...