Posted by Rick Denney on January 09, 2001 at 15:23:47:
I feel like I'm in third-grade science class again.
Experiment: Place a Wick 1 tuba mouthpiece in Besson euphonium (large receiver).
Unexpected results: Characteristic tuba sound.
Note that I did not say it was a *good* tuba sound, but it was definitely a tuba sound and not a euphonium sound. And my range on the euphonium with the large mouthpiece was similar to my range on an F tuba.
When I put the Bach 3G mouthpiece back into the euphonium, the euphonium characteristic sound came back along with half-octave northward shift in range.
New experiment: Place 3G mouthpiece in York (which has a receiver only slightly larger than a bassbone receiver)
Expected result: Sounded like the death throes of a deaf elephant.
So, the procedure is not reversible.
These discoveries beg a question: What size mouthpiece does a small French tuba in C use? If it is a larger mouthpiece than a euphonium, more like what we'd use on an F tuba, then I can understand the use of this horn in an orchestra much better. If it is a euphonium-sized mouthpiece, then how do they get a characteristic tuba sound?
It also leads me to the question that for something like Bydlo, when a euphonium might be used in place of a French C tuba, will a larger mouthpiece provide a sound more like what Ravel was intending?
What mouthpieces do tuba players who double on euphonium typically use?
Rick "have ordered an SM3" Denney