Re: A historical helicon


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Posted by The pic on October 07, 2002 at 08:01:54:

In Reply to: A historical helicon posted by Klaus on October 06, 2002 at 04:24:08:

Yet another long posting on design details. Don't read it! And if you read it, the faults is yours. Discussions are welcome, complaints are not.



It is beyond me, that the pic appeared perfectly yesterday and is now gone. I give it one more try.

At the same I will take the chance to give my shot at Eric's question about, what a tight wrap means to the playing abilities of an instrument:

I don't like tight wraps, as I feel they increase the resistance, they make it much harder to get a wide dynamic bandwith, and they for certain notes narrow in the intonation slots, from where one can get the optimum in sound, intonation, and precise dynamics related to the musical context of these notes.

It might be known, that I have quite a few samples sitting behind me within a rather narrow space, so I have some foundation for comparisons.

One should expect, that 3+1 compensating instruments would fit my description of the problems with tight wraps, because they, if any instruments, fit the term of tight wrapping. Not so, with one disclaimer to come.

I have two such 3+1 instruments, the YEP641 and the Eb Besson 981. Both are very open and full in all of their range of at least 5 octaves.

The compensation system is claimed to automatically correct the inherent mathematical errors occurring, when multiple valves are activated at the same time. In the most cases yes, but two notes are left behind in the dust: the two chromatic steps above the open fundamental/pedal. They are inherently too sharp.

Here the disclaimer enters: I had a main tuning slide installed on the YEP641 to get the C and B natural right.

When I received the 981, I expected to have to install something comparable on that one as well. But the F and E natural can be played in tune on that instrument without additions. A fact, that is beyond my understanding of acoustics. Had I had the faculties of a Steve Sykes, I never had felt an urge to enter the contrabass tuba scene.

The only of my compers that cause a problem is the B&H Imperial Brit style baritone, which has a very narrow slot for the top space 2+3 Gb. That probably comes from the fact, that the B&H Brit 3 valve compers let their master valve, the 3rd, have the same bore as the first two valves.

Courtois has offered a solution for that problem. To be seen at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/YorkMasterPublicPhotosIII/files/CourtoisLowBrassAround1994.pdf

Model #169 at the first page. (Linked to belowhere).

The reason, that the 3+1 instruments work better, is the carefully calibrated larger bore of the 4th valve. In my opinion Yamaha and Hirsbrunner have done best among the euphs (the specs of the Willson and the Sterling are pure cheating, as they are measured as the INNER diameters of valve slide receivers).

Klaus



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