Posted by Bill on July 30, 2001 at 15:06:15:
In Reply to: Rim V.S. Endurance posted by Tim Chen on July 30, 2001 at 14:36:23:
Tim, I hope this answers some of your question and elicits other comments to help with the rest of your queries. I have a mouthpice I find precious because the old guy who used it taught me, using it and playing the most incredibly lovely tone on it. He was a collegue of Bill Bell and shared ownership of the Eb sousaphone Bell often used on recordings and gigs. This teacher, George Black, said they kept it in a locker at Grand Central Station. The mouthpiece came to me after George died. It is a lovely old somewhat Hellebergish mouthpiece, no manufacture name and not only very deep but with more brass relieved from the throat. I love to play it and the tone it makes for all of 20 minutes, then, exhaustion. I took measurements of it and sent them to Doug Elliott. He returned a mouthpiece to me that duplicates the sound but with two changes. First the sharp, cookie cutter rim is gone and a flatter, wider rim is used. Second, Doug knows how to tune the shank for the "gap" in the leadpipe-receiver connection so that it is correct. I have eevry bit, if not more, control over the new mouthpiece than before on the old. I conclude that the gap is the most important aspect of the control since the rim of the Doug Elliott is much wider (but the "bite" seems to be the same). The shanks of the two mouthpieces are radically different, however. I made a wax casting of the old mouthpice bowl and the new one is identical. All of the parts on the new mouthpiece are stock Doug Elliott parts, I think. Hope this helps.