Posted by Hard to say... on September 05, 2003 at 12:30:37:
In Reply to: How many... Bell wrinlkes posted by anon... on September 05, 2003 at 12:19:30:
1. How many times can i put a wrinkle in my bell
2. How does it affect the sound of my tuba
3. What does it do to a tuba...?
1. Is this a competition? How many times do you want to wrinkle a bell? I assume that you're talking about having wrinkles removed and then acquiring new ones. It depends so much on how well the factory looked after annealing the bell during spinning, the thickness and type of brass, the age of the horn, etc. I've heard of bells that developed cracks without having been wrinkled once. Best not to do it too much.
2. Again it depends on the what and where of things. A bell with a big deep dent in it might not sound as good as a nice clean bell. Then again, it might improve things.
3. Gives it "texture" and "character". Actually, every time you get a dent worked out, it changes the shape of the bell slightly, because the brass is stretched somewhat and can't be "unstretched". So the tech has to distribute the stretched metal so as not to have it look too weird. I suspect that with many dents and removal, the tuning and projection of the instrument would be changed somewhat.