Mouthpiece Question

[jc.tuba1]

First post so sorry if I mess anything up…

I’m a sophomore in highschool now and have been playing on the same Conn Helleberg mouthpiece since 6th grade. Through the years it has been pretty beaten so I am shopping around for a new one.

I was wondering if anyone on this forum knew any good ways to play test mouthpieces? I’ve talked to my private lesson teacher a little bit and he said his students usually try their section mate’s mouthpieces. Not only is that discouraged now due to the whole pandemic, but they also only have GW Diablo mouthpieces. I know it is a good mouthpiece and I have tried it, but I want to search more before buying a $150+ mouthpiece that I will be using for the foreseeable future.

As of now I have tried: GW Diablo, Conn Helleberg, Bach 18

I’ve had my eye on the Laskey 30G and Parentucci PT48. I want to try gold plating at some point as well.

All help is greatly appreciated!

[ronr]

You aren’t going to go wrong continuing to play a Conn Helleberg, so maybe just pick up a replacement. If you want to try something different consider looking at the Lexan mouthpieces Kelly produces. They make an excellent copy of a PT50, for one.

[circusboy]

I agree with ronr on the Conn. It'll save you a lot of money for now.

Do you have the horn you're going to keep and play through college? If not, I'd definitely wait on the mouthpiece. Some horns are very mouthpiece sensitive - I've had some of those - and others aren't.

(I switched horns recently to one that people have said was very mouthpiece sensitive. So I tried several, very different from each other mouthpieces and found so little difference among them for this horn that I just kept using my old faithful.)

[royjohn]

If you want to try some mouthpieces, look at buying from Amazon sellers who offer a return privilege or other sellers like wwbw or Dillon or Mouthpiece Express who also do so. Read all the fine print. You will need to use a credit card and the mouthpiece(s) will all be charged against it, but if you return one or all within the trial period and in new condition, they will credit the card with the refund. Do read all the fine print, as you will find that some (I think Mouthpiece Express) will charge a restocking fee and with most or all, you will be responsible for the shipping and maybe the return shipping. However, unless you can find friend willing to let you try their mouthpieces, this is probably the cheapest way to trial others. You could also buy used mpcs and resell them if you don't like them. Most of these are more than $50-$75, but some are less. The Kelly plastic pieces are also pretty cheap, particularly used. Just do the math and figure out what is cheapest for what you want to try.