[Dixielandjazz] Miking the Tuba

[Dick Sleeman]

Sorry, previous post sent prematurely!

> One of the guys just spent $5000 on a tuba and he isn't about to clip or tape
> anything to it.  Any other suggestions?  My regular guy's tuba looks like a
> car ran over the bell and he used the tire iron to straighten it out.
> Larry

 I use a Beyerdynamic Opus 62

 (http://northern-america.beyerdynamic.com/cms/Wind_instruments.78.0.html?&L=1)

 The frequency response is 40 - 12,000 Hz and is sufficient because the lowest
 note on a tuba (E1) is 41 Hz (leaving pedal tones aside) and nobody plays that
 high (leaving Sam Pilafian and Dave Bargeron aside ...)

Besides, so called closed miking always favours the low frequencies!

 It IS a clip and although my tuba looks for some reason like it has been used a
lot :-)) I don't want to scratch it. So I found a solution that works fine for 
me and my tuba.
I took two of those sucking gadgets one uses to hang a towel in the bathroom,
and put them together with a crossbar. I then place this structure somewhere
halfway down the bell, and attach the clip to the crossbar so the mike hangs
exactly in the middle of the bell.

Of course the sound quality is less than having a mike say a half meter away, 
but as I said, it works for me. The level on the PA should not be too high so 
the tuba is also heard acoustically.

Regards,

Dick