Posted by MG on March 07, 2003 at 20:27:03:
In Reply to: Muting question posted by Rocky Bivens on March 07, 2003 at 07:04:15:
I've found the result in using a mute has been better with smaller tubas as opposed to larger ones. Whereas my horns actually sound pretty similar open, they sound very different muted. Actually, I only prefer the smaller tuba's muted sound because the bigger tuba's muted sound is so bad. All in all, the smaller tuba can sound very similar to a trombone playing with a straight mute. Unfortunately, there's a grain of truth in what "moot" says: with the small tuba, the volume is almost the same, whereas with the big horn it is much softer than normal.
For the record, big horn = miraphone 186 BBb, small horn = Yamaha 621 F