Re: helleburg mpcs


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Posted by Barry Guerrero on July 31, 2001 at 11:00:14:

In Reply to: helleburg mpcs posted by me on July 30, 2001 at 22:27:31:

I'm greatly confused by all of this Helleberg business, mainly because I've been out of the mouthpiece loop for a long time. I could never get with the 7B, because the ones that I tried had a very wide, flat rim with a nasty, sharp bite to them. I think that part of the problem was that Conn used to be really inconsistant on making these mouthpieces. Then I have a huge Conn Helleberg that I believe people used to refere to as the Helleberg "Chief". I never see anybody refere to a "Chief" anymore at all. It's just stamped Conn-Helleberg. Anyway, I bored the throat more open on that one, and use it for nothing but Oktoberfest gigs where the director wants the tubas strictly in the lower octave. I used to own a miraphone Helleberg, but a student trashed it years ago. I liked that one because it had the more comfortable Miraphone style rim. Nowadays, it seems like anything that looks like a deep funnel and isn't too wide, gets called a Helleberg. I just ordered a used Miraphone C2 from Dillon Music. I wonder if that were a new mouthpiece, it would get called a Helleberg also (?).

It's nice to see people recommend Scott Laskey's, and lots of other exotic and expensive mouthpieces, but there really are so few places to go test play such things. I can't find a single heavy wall mouthpiece in the bay area to go have a test play on. However, I'm not complaining, as *choice* is a good thing to have - even if it's not all that tangible.

Barry Guerrero


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