bloke wrote: Fri Oct 16, 2026 9:34 pm When we finished with that tune, I quoted Miles Davis:

It's the notes you DON'T play...

arpthark wrote: Sun Oct 11, 2026 5:26 pm Kind of an unusual instrument to amass and kind of obsolete unless you’re in a British style brass band. Does he play them…?

They are also widely used in Mexican banda music. Put them on LA Craigslist and I’ll bet they go pretty quickly.

Here is a nice, albeit poorly formatted, article about living across the hall from Isaac Stern. Stern’s neighbor encouraged him to practice with his door open so the neighbor could hear. The obvious solution to your problem is to play like Isaac. :teeth:

https://observer.com/2001/10/isaac-stern ...

Fender totally gets it, and they get people to buy second and third versions of the same old models of their bass guitars simply by issuing them in wild new colors.


They even charge extra for dinging them up at the factory. Half an hour with some sandpaper, a blowtorch, and a ball peen hammer ...

https://cdn.britannica.com/71/287471-050-BC7B8EA4/Motown-bassist-James-Jamerson-circa-1964.jpg

Dead bass strings? Pshh


He didn't need ANY strings to play great.
That said, at least he knew what brand of axe to play:
Mirafender


He didn’t even need to be upright.

Motown piano player ...

tennis shoes, tennis shoes, slippers (disguised with socks and being black), and sandals...


If you went to a Cleveland Orchestra concert in the late 1960’s, the 1970’s or 1980’s one thing you could not escape noticing were Daniel Majeske’s shoes. He was the concertmaster and his shoes always ...

Sure about contra? Sounds like basstrombone…


I have the album and the liner notes say contrabass. Here is a poorly shot video where he is definitely playing the big horn. This tune is more pedal centric but I hear the same sound quality when he gets out of the sub-sub-basement. I like this ...

Don't forget to add to this the dinosaur: the G bass trombone as made by Boosey & Co. (before the merger) about a century ago for British Brass Bands.


Speaking of the Brits, the Salvation Army made a really unique contrabass trombone. It had two slides connected with a string mechanism. When ...

Phil Teele was a player. Enjoy.

If @bloke’s idea doesn't work, you could always try this.

Comma,

Truly, you are, “A knight without armor in a savage land.”

It's a shame Mozart hated the tuba so much though. Not even one note! :laugh:


One composer that developed a dislike for the tuba was Sibelius. What I was told was that the tubist in the Helsinki Orchestra at the time was not very good, frequently drunk, and always obnoxious. Apparently ...

I really like the Paul, but I don’t understand why. If you look at the specs or look at the mouthpiece it seems like a 24AW with a useable rim. It’s very deep and has an enormous throat. Somehow, it manages not to be an air hog, produces a lively and engaging tone with great response down low, and ...

catgrowlB wrote: Thu Aug 20, 2026 6:02 pm I'd like to hear about players and what they played in some other orchestras. What did Wes Jacobs use while in Detroit Symphony?

I recall seeing Wes using a Rudy Meinl 5/4 CC and a Yamaha 321 Eflat.

Ah, musicians and fingers. Here is a story from Mac Rebennack’s autobiography “Under a Hoodoo Moon: The Life of Dr. John the Night Tripper,” that took place on Christmas Eve 1961.

“We was at a motel in Jacksonville, Florida, getting ready to go to a gig, when our singer Ronnie Barron disappeared ...

After getting it sewn up at the doctor's office, I went back and did some more work on some tubas. It didn't hurt too bad, but I could feel the stitches pulling.


Glad it wasn’t worse; heal quickly. I have to confess, though, I’m a little disappointed that you didn’t have Mrs. Bloke stitch it ...

I believe I've figured it out.
If I find that I have for certain, I'll let you guys in on the trick.
It involves heating antimony to the boiling point, and melding its fumes with other secret gases.


You can make Liver of Antimony by detonating equal parts of crude antimony and nitre (potassium ...

bloke wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2026 10:14 pm

This is supposed to be a pretty good mouthpiece.

Good choice, but I’m going with this guy.

“If the shank don’t fit, you have to acquit.”

TubaShield replacement parts are sourced from internationally acclaimed parts supply firms and are fully guaranteed to look like tuba parts.

https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1662892743/photo/shohel-works-at-a-metal-workshop-in-dhaka-bangladesh-on-september-13-earning-a-monthly-income.jpg?s=612x612 ...