Replate or replace? Mouthpiece stuff, advice sought.

[ginnboonmiller]

Hi.

So at a recent rehearsal, during a goof-around moment, I noticed that a very old, very used Marcinkiewicz H3 mouthpiece was just about the perfect thing with my B&S PT-5 (this is a 4-valve piston model, pretty dang rare and not nearly as lemony as the reputation indicates for this horn, by the way...). It's in rough shape. Very small cracks in the end of the shank and in desperate need of replating. And anyway, the receiver on my horn is decidedly European taper and swallows everything without a large shank or adapter.

Well, I COULD get a new H3. It's $135 and doesn't seem to be available with a Euro shank (tell me if I'm wrong about that, though!). OR, I could send it off to Dillon's, get it refurbished, beef up the shank, replated.

I haven't asked for a quote, but I suspect it's not a $25 job. The question for me is whether it's a $135 job (including train tix to Woodbridge, which are a bit more than shipping from the West Coast, I'd bet).

Thoughts?

[MartyNeilan]

Here is the thing about getting a mouthpiece replated:
If there are any nicks in the rim, some shops will buff it until it is perfectly smooth. What they are doing is removing all the metal down to the bottom of the indention. Done to an extreme, this can adversely change the shape of the rim of the mouthpiece.
Marty "learned the hard way to always specify to buff as lightly as possible"

[ginnboonmiller]

Another plan of action might (??) be to discover which type of receiver your PT5 tuba has (just a nickel-silver "cover" over a "through" mouthpipe tube, or..?? a genuine receiver).

I've thought about this myself... Would it be enough to bend a paper clip into a "feeler" and check for a gap/seam? I can't quite merit the purchase of an endoscope for this particular problem...

[Ken Herrick]

I think I might have mentioned this before.....

If you want to try a MP on a horn with a receiver which is too large, get some thin cork sheet as used to recork clarinet tennon joints and wrap the shank. Any woodwind repairer could probably do this for you for $10 -20 on the spot. You can then sand it down to fit perfectly and it is easy to tell just how well it fits merely by looking at the cork. If it doesn't work - just take the cork off and you've done no damage.

[imperialbari]

Another plan of action might (??) be to discover which type of receiver your PT5 tuba has (just a nickel-silver "cover" over a "through" mouthpipe tube, or..?? a genuine receiver).

I've thought about this myself... Would it be enough to bend a paper clip into a "feeler" and check for a gap/seam? I can't quite merit the purchase of an endoscope for this particular problem...

Some receivers my have a ridge, Bach trumpet style, supposed to meet the end of the mouthpiece. In such cases you may feel that ridge just by sliding the back end of a wooden pencil along the inside of the receiver.

However I don’t think those ridges are very common in tubas and euphoniums.

One very common sample of a cover over the tubing coming all the way through is the Conn sousaphone bit. One tuba with that type of leadpipe is the York Master BBb made by B&M.

A sample of a true receiver may be seen on the Besson compensating tubas. Their receivers have been turned in brass or nickel silver to fit the conical shank in one end and to accept the leadpipe tubing in the other end, so that the inner surface is smooth at the joining point.

Klaus