Posted by Joe S. on October 12, 2000 at 20:52:53:
In Reply to: Re: Holton,York cut jobs posted by Not Cut on October 12, 2000 at 14:29:57:
I would agree with all of those general statements / observations.
I stuck one of those "medium" (long, and almost 19" diameter at the top - I also trimmed about seven inches off of the bottom of this bell section.) York BBb bells on a German-made York Master that ALREADY had good intonation. The good intonation remained (after the cut, too). Incidentally, I wasn't particularly interested in the leftover (Michigan) "medium-sized" York BBb branches.
Generally, I believe that the intonation tendancies dwell in the tapered branches, and that those who believe that they can fix out-of-tune notes with different mouthpieces
are not fully paying attention to occurances. I haven't noticed very many pitch tendency changes after changing bells, either...even "drastic" bell changes. (As one example, one of the VERY best in-tune tubas is the old Mirafone 184. Some people - including me - have shoved Olds / Reynolds 16" bells on them. The pitch was still excellent. The only thing that changed a bit was the quality of the sound.)
If one had to over-generalize, the duties would be divided as follows:
- mouthpiece, mouthpipe, and bore -- "feel" and resistance
- branches -- intonation and potential volume of sound
- bell -- quality of the sound ("tone")
rebuts? (I ABSOLUTELY PROMISE NOT TO SUBPOST UNDER ALTERNATIVE OBSERVATIONS. I am quite curious regarding opposing opinions here.)