Posted by Frank on November 21, 2002 at 14:06:23:
In Reply to: Re: On drugs? posted by TubaRay on November 21, 2002 at 13:09:18:
In the context of today's players, you are probably correct. Today Eb's are not generally used as main tubas in brass/wind bands. So the Eb tends to do more solo work, probably toward the higher part of the bass staff. In that case a smaller mouthpiece would certainly make sense.
Some years ago, however, Eb's were often the main tubas (almost always sousaphones) in high school bands. At least in this part of the country, there were probably at least as many Eb's as BBb's. That was because it was so much easier to convert a trumpet player into a sousaphone player, on Eb than on BBb. Then, after the kid could play a BBb they might transfer him/her to BBb.
So there were a considerable number of Eb horns that were expected to play the bottom - once in a while bands used 4 valve Eb horns to make the lower notes available. (In my case, I was the only sousaphone player for my last 2 years of high school, and never learned BBb until college - going directly from three valve Eb to a Conn 20J. Talk about a BIG adjustment!)
In any case, if you expect an Eb player to cover, he/she is playing lower on the instrument all the time than would be for a BBb player, in order to achieve the same tones. So it would be about the same as a BBb player who was faced with playing most everything below, say Bb or C on the bass staff, and a good part of the time at Bb below the staff, and lower. Faced with that you would certainly favor a mouthpiece that facilitated the lower part of the register.
Its interesting how things have changed in the last 40 or 50 years. I just got back into playing and was surprised to find out how few Eb's are being played today. Its is kinda obvious when you look at the relatively cheap prices for some of the used Eb's you see on the web.
I know, you youngin's probably get tired of hearing from us old duffers, but if you understand what happened some years ago, it might shed some light on some of these things you see or hear that probably do't make sense in today's context.
In my case, I loved my Eb and really hated giving it up. I didn't want to change fingerings and loose my familiarity with the trumpet - but today I sure don't want to give up my big bore BBb to go back to an Eb.
Just a little more input into the question :-)