Re: Taper and intonation


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Posted by Rick Denney on October 26, 2001 at 17:20:04:

In Reply to: Taper and intonation posted by Chuck(G) on October 26, 2001 at 15:45:59:

Joe S and I were discussing this topic while lounging in his living room last time I was in Memphis. He held up his fingers, indicating about a one-inch diameter--with the notion that the whole intonation story had been told by then.

When I took out considerable cylindrical pipe from my project horn, immediately downstream from the valves, the intonation that was affected was in the low register of the horn, rendering an Eb with a bad low register into an F with a really bad low register. The middle and upper register seemed about the same. But the valves are leaky and may be hiding the effects resulting from taper changes.

But finding a mouthpiece with the right backbore and volume, and tapering the receiver so that the new mouthpiece fit properly, had a bigger effect on intonation on the York Master than anything else I'd tried (including that short-wheelbase Wick 1). The selection of the proper mouthpiece seems to affect the intonation of most tubas, but some more than others.

Fred Young did some study on the proper taper design for intonation, and I'm hoping he'll respond to this thread.

Rick "thinking that bell and bottom bow affect mostly the tone rather than the pitch" Denney


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