Posted by Rick Denney on February 06, 2002 at 17:33:37:
In Reply to: Re: Monette 94F Tuba Mouthpiece posted by David on February 06, 2002 at 17:08:28:
When I bought my first F tuba (a Cerveny-made? Musica), I asked my teacher what mouthpieces to try. He suggest a PT-9 (what is now the PT-64), which is what he used on his B&S F tuba. Sure enough, that mouthpiece worked quite well on that tuba. But that Musica was a lot like the B&S (though not nearly as good). When I bought my Yamaha 621 F, the PT-9 was a disaster. It indeed sounded and felt just like I'd put a large cork in the bell.
That mouthpiece was clearly made for an instrument that isn't going to be used for honking down low, and that isn't going to be played like a contrabass.
The Yamaha, on the other hand, loves be honked down low and plays down there just like a contrabass. It works very much better with a contrabass-style mouthpiece. My current mouthpiece is an Elliott R cup and R-4 backbore, which seems similar to a Helleberg 7B (but I have a bigger rim on it).
The point is that some F tubas are indeed bottled up by mouthpieces that are optimized for other F tubas, and maybe your Monette 94F that is lovely on your B&S is a bit like the PT-9 that my teacher loved on his B&S.
The last Kalison F tuba I played was a prototype at a convention about a dozen years ago, and I don't remember much about it. But I wonder if it wants a bigger mouthpiece, just as my Yamaha does.
Rick "thinking chocolate and vanilla might be pretty far apart in this case" Denney