Posted by Anthony on January 14, 2001 at 16:31:03:
In Reply to: Re: Chicago York posted by Frederick J. Young on January 14, 2001 at 08:52:29:
>> As far as the metal in the instrument, I feel it makes no difference what it is made of. Robert Young and I did a lengthy study on trumpets and found that the average symphonic player could not tell the difference between a silver, brass, copper or concrete herald trumpet. <<
Though I don't know the specifics of trumpets, I find this statement absolutely ridiculous when applied to tubas. I'm not an incredibly talented tubist myself, but I can feel metal differences in various horns the instant I start to put air through them. Just take a trip to any tuba factory(Yamaha, specifically), and blow on some of the identical horns with different metal concentrations. Or take two virtually identical besson BBb tubas, one 50 years older than the other... same cosmetic and technical design, very different metal makeups... the difference in sound characteristics affected by the different metal combinations is indisputable.
It didn't take me long to figure out that my 3 valve non-compensating copper besson played 40 times better than my tin-foil St. Pete.