Posted by Jay Bertolet on September 22, 1999 at 11:36:38:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Mouthpieces posted by Mike Sanders on September 22, 1999 at 10:14:25:
I'm wondering if your experiences are an outgrowth of the equipment you primarily use. I definitely agree with you that a mouthpiece that helps to produce a "bigger and darker" sound might be overkill in conjunction with a Yorkbrunner type instrument. I've always thought that a good strategy with mouthpieces was to couple a mouthpiece to a tuba such that the mouthpiece helped in areas that the tuba was weak in. For example, I tend to use smaller mouthpieces (within reason) with bigger tubas. This thinking doesn't seem to work all that well with F or Eb tubas for me yet but with CC tubas it seems to work rather well. I particularly enjoy the centering qualities of a medium sized mouthpiece when plugged into a big howitzer. I'm sure the player variable also has a huge effect. You speak of changing your sound depending on the piece but I have never felt comfortable doing that on the really big tubas. That is why I don't advocate using them as a primary instrument and instead using a 4/4 type tuba. I'd be curious to know if you've tried a heavyweight mouthpiece on any of your smaller tubas and what was your opinion. One of the things you mention, the "core" of the sound, is the primary reason I use heavyweight mouthpieces. My experiences have been that they greatly enhance how well the sound centers and help make the sound more "cored".
Thanks for posting your opinions. I find this type of discussion exceptionally enlightening!