Marcinkiewicz H4

[Donn]

Following up on an inquiry here a couple months back - I went ahead and ordered a Marcinkiewicz H4 mouthpiece, and it finally arrived Wednesday. So I am now in a position to dispel the clouds of mystery around this mouthpiece, and I shall attempt to do so in the paragraphs that follow.

It's supposed to resemble the Helleberg pattern, and is the shallowest of the H series, the deepest being the H1, also the most well known of them.

It really is a shallow mouthpiece. Not as shallow as a Conn 3 or a Schilke 62, but it's also much wider - he measures rim diameter at 33.6 mm, and it feels like it. It's shallower than a GW Diablo, and a little more conical in profile, though perhaps a tiny bit more bowled out than the Conn 2 or 3. The rim is fairly ordinary, neither flat nor excessively rounded.

It plays pretty well in tune on my Eb, and is going to be an interesting option for a huge mouthpiece. It was also at home right away on my largish sousaphone, where the shallowness gives it a nice touch of brightness without the sort of flat edge I get from a bowl shaped cup at higher volume. Seem to be few if any other mouthpieces on the market that offer this combination - large, shallow funnel - but I'm very pleased with it so far, for what little it's worth. Very colorful sound.

[Donn]

Is this the mouthpiece known as the Porker? The Charlie Vernon Survival Model? Do you have any idea what I'm talking about??

Only by reputation. I doubt it, but might be the next best thing. Of course, we are only talking about beautiful sounds here.