Posted by js on November 18, 2002 at 18:51:44:
In Reply to: Expensive Mouthpieces vs. Old Standbys posted by Joe Baker on November 18, 2002 at 17:50:06:
Smaller manufacturers of mouthpieces usually need to charge higher prices, due to quantity and time efficiency. To justify this, most of these rely on "caché" (the lure of - as you expressed it - the "boutique"). Fortunately for me, I stumbled across a somewhat mainstream brand (about $70 on the internet - or from my store, etc.) and model of mouthpiece that really works extremely well for me on most contrabass tubas.
As to my F tuba mouthpiece, I couldn't find exactly what I needed but was able to pay a large midwestern manufacturer only about $125 to fab up a mouthpiece to my specs. Funny, that "super-custom" (whatever) mouthpiece was only about half of the price of several of the "caché / boutique" brands' "stock" models.
Joe "I wouldn't mind payin' $250, if that's what it took to get what I need." S.