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There is some real "Dynamic Tension" going on here!!

bloke wrote:oh...and - btw - if some of you are looking to pick up some extra money for only a few hours each week, send me a message...

Grit is online now, which, along with blatant gender discrimination, tells you how ancient that ad is................

Please see my edited post.

Im going to post again for the sake of my future posts.

Many here are 30-45, and even some 75+ years old.

That means that most are at least twice my age.

While that does not excuse me, I want to make my views clear. Most of the TNFJ have more experience than me, not just in music, but in life. Therefore, you control of your native language (Spanish, Mandarin, English, et.cetera) is greater than mine.

Commen courtesy and respect must always be observed by the parties involved, whether it's enemies or friends. In this day and age over the internet, it is even more important, since we often don't have facial cues or body language to base off our exchanges. All of our views are expressed in words, and if a word is too strong or too weak, it changes how people view of us.

Therefore, If I make any more controversial posts that seem too strong, please PM me. I will change the post, because I believe that you have a better control over english than I do. And in most cases, you are probably right.
Putting too much emphasis on the words I use, and putting me down over a public forum is disrespectful to me.We can talk over a PM, not in a public place where hundreds of people browse TN. As I said before, common courtesy and respect must always be observed, whether its enemies or friends.Please observe these rules with me until I have sufficient control over my words.
And bloke, apology was not needed(Since it was my fault), but appreciated and cherished
And again, thank you for your support and encouragement.

There is a lot more that goes on in the music industry than the person-on-the-street hears about, and a number of changes can lead to confusion on the part of consumers. This is particularly so in the not-very-profitable business of tubas and tuba accessories. There are those that try to make and sell the best-possible quality products, and that is necessarily expensive. There are also those who try to make and sell a less-expensive product, not great but hopefully good-enough, that will satisfy the basic demand at the lowest possible price, and then there are some in-between.

My impression is that when Mr. Perantoni and Mr. Tucci lent their expertise to a collaboration with Fred Marrich of Custom Music Company, they were seeking out the best of what mouthpieces were available for European tubas, suggested improvements, and succeeded in providing excellent professional mouthpieces for at least two generations of tuba players, myself included, under rights and trademark owned by Custom Music Company. Further, they worked with B&S to offer consistent and affordable professional quality tubas to many players in North America, again under the Perantucci Brand, owned by Custom Music Company.

Now, times have changed, the American professional tuba market is saturated, and much fewer people are willing/able to pay the money to buy a professional instrument. Conn-Selmer, Getzen and Kalison all offered CC tubas at one time, but no longer do. Besson and Kalison went out of business, all instrument makers in the West have suffered for years, and when the B&S/Melton(Meinl-Weston) group was on the verge of bankruptcy, the Buffet Group(owner of the Besson name) bought B&S/Melton, possibly unaware that they did not own the Perantucci rights. The owner of Custom Music Company, I'm told, was not willing to budge on the issue of exclusive rights to sell B&S tubas in North America, and that is when the Perantucci coalition started falling apart. B&S tubas are sold elsewhere in the US now, and as I understand it the Mr. P models are continuing to be developed in coordination with Mr. Perantoni, building on a great tradition. Mr. Tucci is passionate about his mouthpieces, and he spends nearly as many hours in the factory as any of the other workers, actually participating in manufacturing them. I would dare say that the RT mouthpieces are better than ever, although I agree that no one gets rich making mouthpieces.

Custom Music International does legitimately own the Perantucci name, and what they do with it is their business. I was told earlier this year that the Perantucci mouthpieces are being made by Bruno Tilz, which would not be surprising, since they made the mouthpieces several decades ago. The shank size of the older Perantucci mouthpieces was apparently sized to fit as many tubas as possible. I have measured one as having a taper consistent with the modern large standard Euro shank, and was uniformly 0.010" smaller in diameter. This sizing could add to the confusion about shank sizes, as most mouthpieces available now are either a true American standard size, or a true larger European size. For those needing the in-between size for their instrument I offer my mouthpiece with that shank size upon request. If Custom Music is importing mouthpieces from Bruno Tilz, those are good, legitimate mouthpieces as far as I know, but certainly not cutting-edge design that Mr. Tucci is offering. He is constantly looking for ways to improve his line of mouthpieces, which is quite impressive.

Lee Stofer wrote:Custom Music International does legitimately own the Perantucci name, and what they do with it is their business.

Hope this is not excessively nit-picky, but just for complete information on this point, it looks to me like the above is specific to the US, while the Perantucci name is used by Robert Tucci in Europe. Hopefully this will cause no more confusion than the long standing, erroneous use of "baritone horn" to refer to a tenor horn or the weird "EEb" designation for an Eb bass, but it will take some attention to detail.

[edit - but not to obscure the point, Lee Stofer's detailed and knowledgeable summary is worth a careful read, for anyone who might still think that a mouthpiece sold by Custom Music might not be "an actual perantucci mouthpiece."]

I use the S shank on my Miraphone and it fits perfectly. I did not know until now what the S stood for....it was in my "box o' pieces" and works the best of any of them, for me. Older PT64S.

My personal thanks to Lee for his clarification of various matters related to Perantucci and Robert Tucci mouthpieces. This applies to the others who have commented as well. In the few posts presented by me, 1/the marketing situation was reviewed and 2/information on shank sizes given. Lee's evaluation of the North American tuba market is quite accurate. There are many people engaged in small business endeavors dedicated to offering the best products and services on good terms. Teachers, musicians and students are better informed than ever. These people, those who invest their money and time in new equipment, determine the success of the products and therefore the direction the business operators follow. Consumers benefit as should be but few are familiar with the responsibilities associated with manufacturing and operation of a business. Here in Europe we are subject to strict regulation both in terms of environmetal concerns as well as legal aspects. Aside from traditional attitudes associated with quality, brass wind instruments and accessories "Made in Germany" can only continue to thrive if they are good.

The Tube Net benefits from correspondence provided by those who are knowledgeable and experienced in the brass wind business.

Bob Tucci