What mouthpiece are you using on your big Eb?

[Philip Jensen]

On my 4/4 1930 Holton Eb I use the G&W Bora for all playing. I tried the Matanuska and the sound was too unfocused. I also tried the Churada and while it was bright and loud as all the dickens (which I liked), the mouthpiece is just too small for me.

Before that I had used an ME3 and a PT-72. I thought these two and the Bora all sounded relatively similar, but I find the Bora easily beats them in terms of playability. I was looking for a larger dia. mouthpiece to ease the switching back and forth with the huga Bayamo I use on my Bb horn.

[Kevin Miller]

Believe it or not, I use a Monette 94 on a Besson 981. I recently bought a VMI 3302 and bought the Monette for that horn only. After playing the Monette on the big horn, I found it difficult to go back to the Marcinkiewicz CH H2 on the Eb horn. I tried the Monette in the Eb and found it to work fantastically and have used it exclusively ever since.

[Lew]

I've been using the Denis Wick 3L that came with my Besson 983. I tried a MW2141 when I bought the Besson. They seem like very similarly sized horns, the main difference being the compensating valves on the Besson.

I have tried a number of different mouthpieces with this including a Helleberg 7B, Dillon PS2, regular Helleberg, and Mike Finn 3. I keep coming back to the Wick for some reason. The cup sizes of these mouthpieces don't seem that different, but the backbore on the Wick is larger and that seems to make the difference for me.

Denis Wick also has a 3XL that they claim is the "professional" version of this, but I haven't seen one and the specs that they report seem to be the same as the 3L. Either way, the DW mouthpieces are inexpensive enough to try one out.

[Jay Bertolet]

Boy they seem really different to me! One is a a 5 valve non-comp large bore and the other a 4 valve mid bore 3+1 compensator.

Ouch! They say memory is the first thing to go and mine must be showing that. I was thinking that the 2141 was the 3+1 Eb that MW used to make. I say "used to make" because I just went on their website and can't find any reference to it (a 3+1 compensating Eb) at all. Am I missing something? Maybe it wasn't MW at all but it was Miraphone that made the horn I'm remembering? So many models these days, it's hard for me to keep them all straight. Obviously, the 2141 bears no similarity to the Boosey 981 other than that they're both in Eb. Sorry for the mistake.

My advice to the original poster changes with this new (to me) information. The Laskey 30F or 30C, assuming that diameter fits your face, is a good choice for this kind of horn. They work great on my Willson which is similar in design but somewhat larger. The nice thing about the Laskey is that he makes them in different diameters so that you can find the size that fits you best.

A couple of posters have recommended mouthpieces that I would normally associate with contrabass tuba playing. While I'm sure these folks use those mouthpiece to great effect, I would encourage the original poster to not jump at a larger mouthpiece right away. One of the blessings of the Eb tubas I play is that they play so similarly to contrabass tubas in many ways. They even accept really large mouthpieces and work very well that way. But my experience has taught me that you lose something in the quality of the sound by using an overly large mouthpiece. Eb tubas are capable of playing very light, just like an F tuba. But you have to use a smaller mouthpiece to get that sound. Further, these horns are designed with a smaller mouthpiece in mind because they are bass tubas. Using a larger mouthpiece will often yield really unusual intonation. All that said, it's really nice to have a great Eb tuba that can sound like a variety of different horns just by switching the mouthpiece. As long as you find mouthpiece that yield workable intonation with each tyope of sound you're trying to achieve, it's all good.

[tubatooter1940]

Hi Doc,
I use a Shilke66 for my King E-flat recording bass.Thanks to Mary Ann I
ordered the same mouthpiece gold-plated.It's a bit small for some folks
but it gives me enough highs and the ability to quickly bottom the horn out.
Dennis Gray