Posted by Jim Andrada on December 21, 2001 at 02:58:20:
In Reply to: Euphonium Mouthpiece Selection posted by Dan Mordhorst on December 20, 2001 at 20:31:16:
As someone else pointed out, the place is indeed Mouthpiece Express and they seem to stock most of the SM mouthpieces. Their web page sometimes seems a little confused, but they're pretty nice on the phone. Their policy is to let you take 4 mouthpieces on approval (you pay up front) and they'll accept 3 back as returns with full refund. Even though it may also bend their rules a bit they said that if you were to send all 4 (silver) mouthpieces back and ask for one of the 4 in gold, they'd also try to oblige you.
I tried the SM3, 3.5,4, and 5 and wound up with an interesting(?) result. I liked both the 3 and 5, but not the other two for my Yamaha 642.
I think the 3 has the "richest" sound and it's the one I like the best particularly in the low range. But (at least for me) by the time we get through with a couple of hours of rehearsal, it does sort of make my high range do a vanishing act.
Surprisingly (to me at least!) the SM5 is also quite nice and it definitely makes life easier in the high range for longer. As well as sounding pretty reasonable in the lower range. I have a tendency to use if for band, or to keep it in my pocket and switch to it after an hour or so - probably against all the "rules" but I do it anyhow, depending on how I'm feeling.
The SM4 just left me cold, and the SM3.5 was significantly different than any of the others - I found it to have more "bite" to the sound and I kind of liked it for a couple of Mexican style pieces where I think it makes it easier to sound sort of "Mariachi-ish"
I sort of liked it a lot the first few days, then started feeling it was a bit too "brash" sounding and I wound up liking the SM3 the best, SM5 close second, and I kept the SM3.5 for those days when I want to toss subtlety over the side and have everybody hear ME!
This isn't very scientific as an analytic comparison, but I'd also be interested in other opinions about these mouthpieces.