Re: Re: Damping


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Posted by Rick Denney on July 19, 2001 at 10:18:27:

In Reply to: Re: Damping posted by Joe S. on July 18, 2001 at 21:34:55:

Well, Joe, you said a mouthful. And, you know, I agree with you.

(Although I have to say that, back in the 80's at least, Chuck Daellenbach's Yamaha wasn't exactly precisely stock--it had vented valves and a few other goodies the stock horns didn't have. I know because he showed them to me. I went right out and did the same things to my F tuba. And Chuck spent quite a lot of time messing with combinations of this and that in developing what became the CB-50.)

What follows is a general statement, call it an Apology for a Geek. (Apology in the classical sense.) I'm just using myself as an example I'm familiar with, and I'm the only one I'm willing to accuse of being mediocre. There are others on this group who could provide similar examples, I'm sure.

I am your typical engineer with more than a smattering of research in my background who happens to play the tuba. I don't play very well, which is no secret even from me. But my interest in tubas goes beyond playing. It's a hobby, after all, and as long as the techno stuff is fun, then it qualifies for something I'll spend time doing. I'm the same way with other hobbies. You'll notice that the photography-oriented part of my web page has as much about testing lenses as it does about making images. And you'll notice that my articles in Triathlete magazine were about how bicycles are designed and made, not how they are ridden.

None of my friends who, say, collect thousands of dollars worth of stamps attract the sort of smirks that most people give me when they see cameras, tubas, or bicycles at my house. Yet, I spent less an all of those then your average bass fisherman spends on a boat. Okay, maybe only a little more.

It is okay for people to like talking about and tinkering with an artistic tool even if their artistic abilities are limited.

But there are exceptions to your statement. I know several top-flight tuba players who own dozens and dozens of mouthpieces, and are always in search of one that is a little better than the one they use. Eddy Merckx, the greatest cyclist of the 20th century, tinkered with his bikes obsessively, and now he makes a good living building and selling them. In a film about his life, Ansel Adams was positively giddy in showing off his Hasselblad camera kit, even though it is much smaller than the cameras he used for his greatest images.

Even considering these exceptions, the trend is there and I agree with it. But saying that being into the equipment causes mediocrity just because there is correlation is a violation of logic. The desire to tinker doesn't explain mediocrity, which is another way of saying that if I stopped tinkering I'd not be a better player. If I stopped tinkering, part of what I like about tubas would go away, and I'd spend my tinkering time tinkering with cameras or bikes. (Insert any time spend on the technology of tubas for the word "tinker.")

What it does do is belittle those of us who like to tinker and who are mediocre. I don't think you intended that result.

Now, I feel much better. [Group hug]

Rick "who likes thinking about, tinkering with, talking about, and occasionally even playing tubas" Denney

p.s. I suppose that complaint you had several months ago about nobody responding to your provocative posts has cycled back the other way, heh, heh.


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