Plastic Mouthpiece???

Dan Schultz · Post by **Dan Schultz** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 11:07 pm

Bob1062 wrote:Whatever happened to the Kelly PT-50 thing?

Apparently the tooling never got beyond the prototyping stage. I think you can buy the Kelly 50 but the price last I heard was about $50.

iiipopes · Post by **iiipopes** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 5:31 pm

I have both an Astro Nylon (DEG) and a Kelly 18. The Kelly 18 is vastly superior in tone, response, and crisp intonation. The nylon is a little bit softer than the lexan, and the tone is a little more wooly, but with a "whang" to it from the joining of the nylon cup to the nickel shank.

The manufacturing tolerances on the Kelly are really tight, as I own two of them, and there is only the slightest bit of difference in them. The Kelly cup is deeper than my "real" Bach 18 cup. But I've played other Astro mouthpieces, multiple specimens of the same "spec," and there can be quite a variation. The Kelly is spot on on its spec, 1.285 rim diameter, while the Astro is just a tad larger diameter, probably @ 1.29 or 1.30, but with a little shallower cup, more like my "real" Bach 18.

The Astro sits on a shelf. the Kelly 18 is in the souzy case ready for the county fair gigs coming up at the end of this month. It is the only mouthpiece I use outdoors, because of the good core and projection of tone, in addition to all the physical reasons: doesn't break, won't break what it's dropped on, insensitive to cold, etc. The only thing I do is put a ring of golfer's lead tape around the shank where it meets the bowl so that it doesn't tend to "crack" at high dynamic levels. I even use it on my Besson when I play a hour here and there for a Salvation Army kettle at Christmas, and on my Miraphone when performing outdoor community band gigs. But it really, really shines on a souzy. Every tuba player should have a Kelly for two reasons: 1) outdoor extreme temperature gigs and 2) backup just in case. They're too cheap not to have one or more in your favourite colour(s).

andrew the tuba player · Sun Jul 22, 2007 1:00 am

I just bought a kelly 18 a couple days ago. i reallly like it, but band directors dont. (i had one tell me to go burn it

) one other thing I've noticed about it is that its really god for practiseing buzzing. but, I'm just rambling. Ive never tried a different one.

iiipopes · Post by **iiipopes** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 8:32 am

Give me your director's name and email. I'll set him straight.

I tried a "blind" test after I got mine with my community band, which has a sizable contingent of current and retired band directors, including those who play brass, and those who play low brass especially. Even though I could tell the difference, they could not.

bearphonium · Post by **bearphonium** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 12:28 pm

I just checked ww-bw: $27 bucks. Now, what color to get....

tubatooter1940 · Post by **tubatooter1940** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 10:05 pm

I like my Kelly 24AW. I want a candy stripe one next.

Daryl Fletcher · Post by **Daryl Fletcher** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 11:57 am

iiipopes · Post by **iiipopes** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 1:09 pm

I also did a test for my community band, which has a lot of current and retired band directors, including some low brass players. They could not tell the difference.

Specs: http://www.kellymouthpieces.com/specs.asp

pulseczar · Post by **pulseczar** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 1:39 pm

Jordan Morris wrote:
Bob1062 wrote:Whatever happened to the Kelly PT-50 thing?
I sent an email to Kelly about this prototype. They are asking $65 plus $14 for shipping so a total of $79 bucks. Kinda crazy f you ask me but I don't know what do you guys think?

I think that if there is enough interest here on tubenet, we should try to get one big order of KT50s.