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I used one for almost our entire West coast tour, and have been going back to it now & then lately.

Because of how grippy it is, you really do have to play differently.

Also -- maybe because of its light weight -- it's fairly easy for me to overblow, especially when compared to a Marty Erickson 5 that I usually use. For the first time in quite a while, I tried my Kellyberg again late last week, and within two notes I had to back off just to sound normal.

It's certainly cheap enough to experiment. But, its plastic construction is definitely its best feature. I'm hoping to eventually get a Perantucci or Doug Elliot with a plastic rim. I'm also hoping to hear more news someday about the guy who's come up with a more slippery plastic compound that better duplicates the "feel" of metals.

Does it have a good color to the sound similar to a normal Helleberg?

My Kellyberg has great color! (bright green)

A friend of mine is a dealer and sell quite a few of the Kellybergs. He gave me one to 'try out'. It does not compare very well to either the Conn Helleberg or the 7B. I'll keep it around for outside cold-weather gigs but for general playing I'll stick with my metal mouthpieces.

TubaTinker wrote:I'll keep it around for outside cold-weather gigs but for general playing I'll stick with my metal mouthpieces.

I agree - great for cold-weather and marching gigs (or hot weather gigs!), but doesn't really have the sound (with 982 Besson) to carry a band generally speaking.

Simon McCauley

I have been using a Kellyberg for about two months now. I used a Shilke 66 in the 80's, and got a gold-plated Chuck Daellenbach mouthpiece a few years ago. I have noticed that the low range is better with the Kellyberg, which I'm guessing has a lot more to do with slight variations in the dimensions than the materials used.

I just received a Kelleyberg in the post. My first impressions are favorable. The high range on my Eb tuba seems more in tune than with a Bach 18 but the notes seemed a little harder to attack cleanly. That will probably go away with practice. I probably won't use it for everything, but I definitely will use it often.

I finally gave in and bought one. After playing on it for a few days here are my two strongest impressions:

1) It really doesn't sound bad at all. I'm not going to make it my main mouthpiece, but it is quite acceptable.

2) It is even lighter than I thought it would be. And, given #1, it has me thinkiing that heavy-weight mouthpieces probably don't play better.