Posted by Klaus on March 27, 2002 at 10:41:24:
In Reply to: Will silent brass fit all tubas?? posted by dennis on March 27, 2002 at 09:34:16:
Two reservations:
The bell has to be at least 13 or 14 inches wide.
There is an inner, foldable cone system, which might not fit in the bell of the smallest tubas like the old tiny 7xx Eb from Besson. But creative use of duct tape or some sort of string might remedy that problem.
But then I will say, that I have tuba practise mutes from Denis Wick and Humes&Berg plus the Yamaha Silent Brass.
I never use the Silent Brass for tuba, because it is clumsy, heavy, and it affects the silver plating of my Besson 981 at the contact circle of the rubber seal.
And that is not because I am against the Silent Brass system as an idea. I use it for all those of my smaller brasses, where there is a SB model available. Which are all of them, but for my two baritones from B&H and Kanstul. There I use the DW special model.
I also have the DW for euph and for different trombone sizes. They can not compete with their SB equivalents.
The electronics of SB are OK. I have used them a lot years ago. Now I have found ways to know how my open playing compares to the muted one. That is mostly a matter of feel.
Against "common knowledge" the resistance of muted playing is more a matter of psychologic effects than of genuine physical resistance. According to Yamaha researches. I tend to agree.
To sum up: The Yamaha SB system is great. Sadly its by far weakest incarnation is the version for tuba.
Klaus