Posted by Mike Solms on September 17, 2001 at 06:55:35:
In Reply to: Helleberg vs. Helleberg II posted by Greg Crider on September 16, 2001 at 16:29:51:
August Helleberg, as I recall reading, believed that there was an ideal relationship between the volume of a given tuba and the volume of its mouthpiece. He designed a different mouthpiece for each tuba he played. There is, therefore, no one, true Helleberg mouthpiece. His designs tended to be more funnel-shaped than round and generally had rather flat rims with sharp inner edges. Modern manufacturers have either copied specific Hellebergs (the Schilke 66 is copied from a smaller Helleberg) or made mouthpieces of varying sizes using the general countours Helleberg developed. Many have also modified the rim- some of the originals would qualify as instruments of torture by today's standards.