Posted by Dan Bryce on October 14, 2000 at 16:53:52:
In Reply to: A weird discovery posted by Charlie Krause on October 14, 2000 at 16:07:24:
I played around with this when I first switched from my Miraphone 186 to my PT6. I even wraped belts around the bell at times. Every time you move to a bigger instrument, it's safe to say you're going to loose 15% or so of your previous clarity, in the name of a bigger sound. You then have to work to get to where you were on the smaller instrument. I had to quit using the technique because I found that it was negating the size I had so painfully sought, (the pain came in the form of the price difference between the two tubas.) and it was becoming a crutch to learning how to play the bigger instrument clearly. I still use it on ocassion when my f tuba just won't work for a quintet piece etc, and I need a smaller, clearer, more compact sound. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think that is the theory behind tone rings in some instruments. At any rate, these were just my experiences, yours may differ. In my case it worked out better for me not to use it very often, and not using it forced me to gain new clarity on the big horn. (Big horn is primarily used for orchestra stuff)