Posted by Sean Chisham on April 15, 2003 at 13:07:55:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: How to stuff a PT-6 posted by tubagrow on April 15, 2003 at 00:58:21:
I think you missed my point. Your voice on your chosen instrument is dictated by you, the mouthpiece, the instrument itself, and the acoustics of your environment. Changing to a radically different instrument like say a violin and a piano, you will hear substantial differences. A quality player on a Sousaphone and a $18,000 Yorkbrunner playing in the right acoustic environment and on the right music can sound equally good. A player playing on an F tuba and a CC tuba can sound equally good. A player playing on a Miraphone 185 and a Yorkbrunner on certain literature in certain acoustic environments can sound not only equally good but nearly identical. The same player playing on a Meinl Weston 2155 with a PT-88 mouthpiece and a PT-50 mouthpiece will sound nearly identical out front to most people, if that player plays the same tune and uses the same mental approach. The same player playing a gold plated PT-88 mouthpiece vs a silver plated PT-88 mouthpiece will sound identical using the same mental approach. The same player using Alcass valve oil vs Hetman valve oil on the exact same equipment will sound identical using the same mental approach. A player playing on the same horn, one lacquered one unlacquered, in a double blind test, will almost certainly sound identical given the same environment and the same mental approach. The same player wearing brown shoes vs black shoes will sound the same given an identical mental approach.
My point is that equipment makes a difference in sound up to a point, such as an entirelly different horn like say F tuba vs CC tuba, or a Jupiter three valver vs a Meinl Weston 2165. Once you get down to that last 1-5% the tolerances in mental approach are so flexible and loose that tweaking the tuning slide 1 mm will not change the overall pitch center. At that point the brain adjusts to bring the horn towards the mental concepts enough to negate the extremely small differences an equipment change might make.
A good example on a larger scale is the difference between hearing Marice Andre play a Brandenburg Concerto on a student line Olds trumpet vs the typical college student playing the same piece on the top of the line Bach trumpet or Shilke or whatever that individual feels most at ease on. Doesn't matter if the lacquer is missing or not. The mental concepts adjusted so strongly between the two that Marice Andre would sound way better.
The last 1-5% is almost exclusivelly shaped by the individual and not the equipment. No stripped this or heavyweight that is going to make any difference when trying to add the polish, or in the case of auditions, the difference between winning and just making it to the next round or two or three.
So I still say that stripping the lacquer in an effort to improve perceptable sound quality for the better is chasing snipe. The horn will look cool, but it won't necessarily play any better.
sean