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SSH mouthpiece: worth checking out!

Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2005 10:30 am
by bttmbow
I was down at Dave Houser's for some work of my own, and he showed these mouthpieces to me. Of course he was interested for me to try them, and I was also interested!

I liked them a lot; they offered quite a lot of color and also have a "European" (large) shank size, that the old Conn Hellebergs did not have. Check out more details in the sponsors section of this forum.

I would love to hear more from Paul S. about these new mouthpieces on the BBS.

Chris Hall,
tuba, METopera NY, NY

Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2005 2:14 pm
by windshieldbug
Paul is a first class person to deal with in every respect!

and congratulations on becoming a TubeNet sponsor Paul!

Thank You!

Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2005 2:24 pm
by Paul S
Thank you Gentlemen!
I do appreciate your posts and feedback on the mouthpiece very much.

As to a request for some comments by Chris, I had originally written a little about the mouthpiece in a post in the TubeNet Sponsors section so I will try to stay somewhat brief in explaining where the SSH came from in this post.
viewtopic.php?t=11092

In searching for a working replacement for my favourite old faithful, I could never find another Helleberg type rim of the same width, shape or bite. After trying many, many (and anyone who knows me realizes this means A LOT!!) different Mouthpiece designs, models and makes over the years, I found many things that I liked, many things I did not, and none that seemed to have it all. I finally decided I would just have a mouthpiece made with the traits I thought were best to make my life easier and put everything I wanted in to the design.

I took what I thought to be an excellent rim type for superior articulation and control, used a standard Helleberg funnel type but with a slightly enlarged throat bore from the typical, enlarged and flattened the outer shape of the mouthpiece just below the rim for a tad more mass there and then had it produced in surgical stainless steel to achieve the benefits of putting more of your buzz into the horn while keeping a very colourful sound with less overall mass and more comfort against the lips.

Dave Houser is a Master and fantastic man to work with. I was extemely happy with what resulted and when listening to other players talk, I realized the traits I wanted had been what many also had been searching for as well.

The Euro shank version was something I felt was missing the most and so that is the offering on the original batches of the SSH. There will be an American Shank version available after the new year as well for those having that need.

I am very humbled by the support, kind words, feedback and purchases of the mouthpiece by some superb tubists. Thank you all!