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I am a middle-aged weekend tuba warrior and just picked up a used Yamaha 201 euphonium. I wanted to try playing the euphonium as a doubler as well as anticipating the day when the tuba gig bag might get too heavy to haul around.

Physically the horn is in decent shape, just a few minor dents. It came with a used mouthpiece of unknown origin.

I've been playing it on and off few a few weeks and have managed to get a sound out of it. However, the tone is all over the place when using a tuner, and the general sound seems very stuffy. I would attribute the the cause of the poor sound to one of the following:

-It could be me.
-It could be the mouthpiece
-It could be the basic nature of this model horn.
-It probably is me.

So, before I drag the horn into my service tech I just wanted to get some general feedback on the playing characteristics of this model horn, and a mouthpiece recommendation.

I'd also appreciate some insight into the challenges of switching between tuba and euphonium. The difference in mouthpiece size is an obvious challenge, but I'm also finding the difference in embouchure size and air pressure interesting.


Thanks for your help.

bump

For myself when I played euphonium a lot and with one of my students, moving from the origional mouthpiece to a 51D showed vast improvment. Now that I play tuba more I can't begin to play one of those smaller mouthpieces and get the sound I want. I even changed the receiver on my Yamaha 321 to a large shank to open it up more. You might want to do that to feel more comfortable as a tuba player.