TubaForum.net

A disk of plywood, about the size of the bell; made a handgrip into it; moved it over the bell to find the position I most liked (sound and intonation), holding it in that position draw a pencil-line onto the plywood around the bell, stapled a piece of plastic bell protection rim along the pencil-line and ready to go.
Now, with a thin layer of self adhesive felt on the bottom side, it is fully OK for me.

Sounds muffled, dark like a tuba, not a trombone, intonation no problem, transport is easy, conductor is satisfied.

Anyway, saved more than a handful of bucks.

Hubert

Worth a try. What if some of us try it, and it works a lot better than our $300 mutes?

I still have an old Humes and Berg metal mute that I bought when they were $80, and it fits the NStar. The plywood one might be easier for me to hoist, or it might not -- but it's an interesting idea for a Hagen mute.

If and when, Bloke, .....then you will have a problem: how to sell your expensive mutes????
Hubert

Cheapest tuba mute ever is a KFC chicken bucket.

.

OK, correction: 2.54 cm/2= 1.27 cm
Hubert

hubert wrote: Thu Mar 20, 2025 10:55 am If and when, Bloke, .....then you will have a problem: how to sell your expensive mutes????
Hubert

"Method players" will buy them.

Remember that guy who screamed at me on this site two or three weeks ago and told me I'm wrong about everything...??

We can sell them to someone like that.

I wear a beret, trombone does too. Low brass uniform. Keeps my head warm in the cold hall. Drop it into the bell of my EEb when I need a mute, much to the amusement of all. Works well. Conductor likes it. I tried that on my Martin Mammoth and had to take the bell off to retrieve it. If I include the trip to France to get it, it wasn't actually cheap.

The Navy Fleet bands tell the story of a MU1 that was duct taped to the Colors pole, some years ago, in Orlando, FL. I believe he was stuffed into the tuba bell for a holiday concert. Just a little penguin named Holdsworth……

Isn't the cheapest way to get a muted sound to just buy a 24 aw?

bloke wrote: Thu Mar 20, 2025 7:12 pm Isn't the cheapest way to get a muted sound to just buy a 24 aw?

A 24aw mouthpiece plugged into a B&S PT6P.

I played in the pit for a local production of Parade a few years back and just dropped a small hand towel down the bell. It got the job done (and I managed to not get it stuck even)

For really quick changes on programs where I only have like one or two muted notes I just use my folder. It works perfectly and costs me nothing whatsoever, save for the loss of some Man Card points…

the elephant wrote: Fri Mar 21, 2025 10:56 am For really quick changes on programs where I only have like one or two muted notes I just use my folder. It works perfectly and costs me nothing whatsoever, save for the loss of some Man Card points…

I've looked at muted passages on some pieces (imagining whether-or-not it would made any difference) and and decided to ignore them.

Otherwise (as I use the F cimbasso on so many later-era pops arrangements designated as "tuba" parts (as they're obviously written AS IF 4th trombone parts yet "alas, no 4th trombone, so..." - I might actually USE mutes on the parts written with the muted trombones (whereby the pops arranger didn't ask the tuba to mute, and - maybe...?? - they didn't know that tuba players have mutes).

yet another view regarding yet another aspect of this issue:
I sorta look upon it as fairly presumptuous for someone to release a statement out of their mouth such as "In the blah-blah Symphony Orchestra, 'we' don't use mutes on blah-blah passage in blah-blah tone poem"...which means absolutely nothing more than - a long time ago, during a break - one of them asked the music director whether he cared if blah-blah passage/section (65-77) was actually muted - to which the response was "I suppose not"...which was then interpolated - by a handful of individual players - into "policy".

bloke "If one studies the tuba writing in regards to particular tone poem to which I obliquely refer, it seems fairly obvious that it was written to be played on a 4-valve E-flat tuba (the instrument of this type pictured below manufactured during the very same era as the particular composition), whereas the player to whom I refer was playing it on a jumbo C tuba - a bell size for which there weren't really any particularly good mutes, certainly not through the 1980's."

i dont understand the mute hate. A good mute that matches well with tuba you are playing should give a nice difference in tone color, (it's not about volume, despite the word mute) I like aluminum mutes with a nice metallic bite. You dont hear other brass instruments bitching about having muted lines.

LeMark wrote: Fri Mar 21, 2025 2:56 pm i dont understand the mute hate. A good mute that matches well with tuba you are playing should give a nice difference in tone color, (it's not about volume, despite the word mute) I like aluminum mutes with a nice metallic bite. You dont hear other brass instruments bitching about having muted lines.

It's pretty easy to match up a mute with a "smokestack"-shaped bell (though it DOES require matching one - and not just buying one)...but the 6/4 York-shaped bells present much more of a challenge to find anything that's completely reliable. Some (most?) mutes (even large ones) sorta stop working (period) in the low range when inserted into huge/wide bells...

My small H&B mute works really well in my york. It's not the flare that matters, it's the cone.

yeah...not a 6/4 yorkophone.
I have a BB-flat with that identical bell shape (as York and Holton 19" bell 32"-tall tubas' bells and bugles were virtually identical - with the same bells on both the E-flats and the B-flats),

and muting those tubas is easy-schmeazy...

...but (again) the 6/4 yorkophone-shaped bells...muting them and playing really low...well...no.

Yeah, if I have a muted part, I'm going to pick a tuba for that job that I own an appropriate size mute for.