| Liad,
You have a misconception about what adding weighted material to horn does.
When dave Monette started doing that he went very gradually and purposefully with each aspect. The first was the weight of the instrument in general. he realized that there were several parts that were being left out of the equation that helped to add more fundamental and stability to his instrument's nature. It's not a question of "darkness' as most people incorrectly believe. It's a question of more fundamental and more stability.
The valve caps were part of a larger, well-balanced, and thoughtful process. The imitators have taken many of the external aspects of Dave's ideas and included them in their "designs" and the rest is what you see everywhere these days.
The reason it sounds "dark" is because most people that play don't play with the kind of efficiency to get the kind of clarity that was meant for the design concept to be at its maximum. So, the result is a stuffy, woolen sound that is referred to as dark.
So, for some it's a gimmick and for others it's purposeful design.
ML |