Posted by Tony Tuba on January 18, 2002 at 20:18:00:
In Reply to: Re: Re: New 56J posted by Steve Dedman on January 17, 2002 at 18:49:37:
Steve,
Your observations regarding the low register playing characteristic of your horn would so accurately discribe the behavior of my horn that I'd think you had been playing STUMPY if I didn't know better. So, the two horns share some common components, and apparently, some common playing characteristics.
I have a couple of questions for you. First, Matt at Dillon music was very forthcoming in disclosing that the workmanship was flawed in some areas of my horn, but still strongly recomended I try this horn based on his play testing of his inventory (two others in laquer, three in satin silver). And, he was correct. There are two blatent laquer runs, and the soder joint around the throat of the tuba about eight inches below the bell literally appears to be a seam. The soder for nearly all braces is as sloppy as I've seen, and an inspection of the 1st valve shows the a repair soder patch in the port. Yesterday, I took the horn to Oberloh music (www.oberloh.com) and Dan agreed that the horn played nicely, and at the same time, was shocked by the lack of quality control. In his view, this is currently a common problem at UMI. That brought to mind a comment that Matt had made, indicating that the three satin silver horns had defective finish quality due to acid drips. I'm keeping my hornb since I'm in the camp that goes with how the horn sounds over how it looks, but I can't help but wonder what observations or insights you might have on this topic. This topic might be a good post on its own.
Secondly, I would like to explore the mouthpiece issue a bit more with you. The 2341 is very accoustically efficient and responsive, both likely results of the bore. This offsets many of the liabilities regarding attack response and focus normally associated with a large mouthpiece, but not entirely. We have both observed a "huge" sound and slight lack of focus with a large mouthpiece. Physically, I was blessed/cursed with somewhat unusually large lips, so larger mouthpieces can really capitalize on my natural physical traits, and at the same time they are not very fatiguing for me. I'd like to find a large mouthpiece which better addresses the issue of attack and focus (to the extent possible given that it is a large mouthpiece). What about the PT50 with its flat rim and sharp inside edge? Any others come to mind? Thanks.