" ' several mouthpieces, but the same rim..."

[jacojdm]

What does this have to do with auditions?

[Kevin Hendrick]

What does this have to do with auditions?

About as much as it has to do with eBay -- why do you ask?

[sailn2ba]

I think that this is a legitimate breakout, and I, for one, am interested. Is a mouthpiece classification by rim shape available?

[bill]

There are a couple of sources for the dimensions you want. Nothing I have ever seen is complete for ALL mouthpieces but a couple of things will give clues. First, look at http://www.dwerden.com/mouthpieces/tuba.cfm You can click on any mouthpiece rim size and get all of the mouthpieces like it to look at. Many have different cup depths and bores. Second, Josef Klier makes and sells tuba mouthpieces in rigidly programmed increments of cup depth within rim size dimensions. Look at http://www.jk-klier.de/ to see their tuba mouthpiece chart. It is in German but the essential terms are in English and German. They also show "cut away" pictures of the mouthpiece cups.

When I got my M-W 182, I needed to try only two of Klier these mouthpieces to get the right one for orchestral playing and the right one for solo work. Matt Walters, at Dillon, is a source for Josef Klier's "Exclusive" line. From their looks, I suspect Klier and Miraphone mouthpieces are made on the same machines in the same shop.

In my case, I discovered a M-W 182 (and most tubas I own) is really pretty sensitive to bore and cup depth but almost any rim I use seems to work for the horn but maybe not for me. A really telling experiment for me is the Conn 1 mouthpiece I use on my Miraphone 184. It has a 9mm bore and works amazingly well on that horn where a Conn 2, while pretty good, has only an 8.3 mm bore and lacks some of the presence supplied by the Conn 1.

[Kevin Hendrick]

What does this have to do with auditions?

About as much as it has to do with eBay -- why do you ask?

Because this post was originally in "auditions" until I moved it here.

Well, yes, that makes sense!

[cjk]

a few of you: I believe if you approached your rules totally backwards and (maybe...??) tried a different rim with a same-everything-else mouthpiece, you might (??) be surprised at how "at home" the mouthpiece feels, while offering a noticeably different type of resonance.

This would be easy to do with the LOUD stuff. For example, one could go purchase an LM-7 with its standard rim. The standard rim is:

Model LM-7/LM-6 Rim - BBb or CC Tuba Model
CHARACTERISTICS: Width 7.48mm. Inner diameter - 32.6mm.
FITS: LM-15, LM-7, LM-6, LM-5

Then also purchase:

Stainless Steel Helleberg Rim - BBb or CC Tuba Model
CHARACTERISTICS: Width 7mm. Inner diameter - 32.6mm.
FITS: LM-15, LM-7, LM-6, LM-5

Model LM-15 Rim - EEb or F Tuba Model
CHARACTERISTICS: Width 7.48mm. Inner diameter - 32.0mm.
FITS: LM-15, LM-7, LM-6, LM-5

Model LM-5 Rim - BBb or CC Tuba Model
CHARACTERISTICS: Width 7.48mm. Inner diameter - 33.2mm.
FITS: LM-15, LM-7, LM-6, LM-5

There's also another rim that fits it, the 26H rim, which is even more like a Laskey rim.

[jonesbrass]

a few of you: I believe if you approached your rules totally backwards and (maybe...??) tried a different rim with a same-everything-else mouthpiece, you might (??) be surprised at how "at home" the mouthpiece feels, while offering a noticeably different type of resonance.

This would be easy to do with the LOUD stuff. For example, one could go purchase an LM-7 with its standard rim. The standard rim is:

Model LM-7/LM-6 Rim - BBb or CC Tuba Model
CHARACTERISTICS: Width 7.48mm. Inner diameter - 32.6mm.
FITS: LM-15, LM-7, LM-6, LM-5

Then also purchase:

Stainless Steel Helleberg Rim - BBb or CC Tuba Model
CHARACTERISTICS: Width 7mm. Inner diameter - 32.6mm.
FITS: LM-15, LM-7, LM-6, LM-5

Model LM-15 Rim - EEb or F Tuba Model
CHARACTERISTICS: Width 7.48mm. Inner diameter - 32.0mm.
FITS: LM-15, LM-7, LM-6, LM-5

Model LM-5 Rim - BBb or CC Tuba Model
CHARACTERISTICS: Width 7.48mm. Inner diameter - 33.2mm.
FITS: LM-15, LM-7, LM-6, LM-5

There's also another rim that fits it, the 26H rim, which is even more like a Laskey rim.

. . . or just get a Doug Elliott set up.

[sailn2ba]

THANKS. I have a Conn Helleberg that seems to work best for me. It has no number on it, but I assume it's a 7. I also have several Bachs, and the most comfortable seems to be the 18. However, the dimensions are quite different from those of the Helleberg.

[ken k]

THANKS. I have a Conn Helleberg that seems to work best for me. It has no number on it, but I assume it's a 7. I also have several Bachs, and the most comfortable seems to be the 18. However, the dimensions are quite different from those of the Helleberg.

If your Helleberg is a newer model and has no number on it then it is the larger "standard" Helleberg. the Helleberg 7B is much smaller but still with the similar flat rim and funnel style cup.

k

PS nice avatar bloke