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I recently purchased a used Conn 52J CC tuba. It's a nice horn with super intonation. I like the sound very much, particularly the low range.

Any mouthpiece recommendations for this horn? It came with a Bach 7 which seems to be OK, but I'm open to suggestions for other m/p's as well. Thanks.

I've been using a G&W Alan Baer mp with my 52J for the past several years. It's a nice piece with a cup that's not too big and a comfortable rim. Plus, the backbore is fairly large, I think. I know that I like the way it feels and sounds with my 52J. It's a bit costly, but worth the $$$ to me.

I agree. I also used a GW Baer Mouthpiece when I had a 52J and was very pleased with the results. I still use the mouthpiece, only it is on a 1291 now.

Rommel

Bill Troiano wrote:I've been using a G&W Alan Baer mp with my 52J for the past several years. It's a nice piece with a cup that's not too big and a comfortable rim. Plus, the backbore is fairly large, I think. I know that I like the way it feels and sounds with my 52J. It's a bit costly, but worth the $$$ to me.

as is Bill's son Dan..and man does he sound good on that equipment ( so I guess this is a second for the Baers)

I don't own a 52J however, I've had a 56J for seven years. For several years I used a Laskey 30H, about two and half or three years ago I swithed to an Alan Baer. If you want to try something larger I've also used the G&W Caver, PT50, PT50+ and this morning, just for fun, pulled the PT88 out of the Thor and tried that, worked fine. I think it depends on what you want to hear. Good luck finding what works for you.

I played my old school's 56J for three years. I found, for me, that a PT-44 worked best for those horns. Good luck!

I haven't noticed any real draw backs to any of the mpcs I've tried on my 56. I know one mouthpiece doesn't fit all with these horns, I have 2 that I use about equally for different situations. One is a soup-can of a Doug Elliott, and really works in large ensembles. When I need to throttle back some I have a PT-17 (old numbering, not sure what that is now) that works really well and produces a much sweeter sound than the DE. It just doesn't give me the oomph I sometimes need in ensemble, so I use it in chamber settings. Interestingly, the mpc that I have liked the least is the Helleberg that came with it.

I've heard good results from a Schilke SHII out of the Conn 5XJ series.

Good question. I'm having a mouthpiece issue with my Conn 52j. The short answer is, I am terribly sharp.

The long answer is that I just switch from a 1291, to a cheap fakie 186, and now I have my college horn from the school. I've been sharp on here, and I don't know what I can do to resolve that issue. I was thinking that it was a mouthpiece issue and that a change of equipment might be a possible solution. OR this is a common issue for these horns? Help!

p.s. I didn't have an issue with this on previous horns, so that is why I came to the council of the interwebs for help.

I use Marcinkiewicz H1 on my Conn 52J. This is a rather big mouthpiece ( 33,6 mm deep, more funnel then bowl) which gives a fat controllable sound. The bore on the Conn 52J is 17.46 mm which is a lot smaller than a Miraphone 186 with a bore of 19.6mm. To compensate for the more edgy sound this mouthpiece works great. I also tried Giddings & Webster Bayamo and B.Tilz-Nea M10 ( some say this is the old PT88) and even compared it to Marcinkiewicz H2 which is a little less deep but the H1 fitted my needs best.
To make a interesting comparison: On my older 1963 Miraphone 186 with 16½ inch bell I also like Miraphone Rose Model Solo (33mm shallow bowl, also named TU27 ) but not so much on the Conn because the sounds is less deep and edgy. The small bore of the Conn52J demands less air to sustain a sound so for me big mouthpieces on small tuba's are logical.*

* Big mouthpiece on big tubas can be pushing the limits of human endurance.. just like bass saxophones and contra bass clarinets. ( I played these too for many years, in my experience they are more fitted for something with the statue of a Hippo.. your ideas get lost in shortage of air.

Henk

To Ouch and Original Poster.
I built the original prototype for this tuba and used a mouthpiece receiver setup that let people use American, European and Large shank receivers. The Conn factory made some changes for the worse from what I sent them but they kept the receiver. Just find the mouthpiece that feels good to you and plays well. They came from the factory with a Conn Helleberg (120-S). I like and used a Geib cup mouthpiece when I built the King CC that became the Conn 5xJ series of tubas.

Ouch,
Because of some changes they did to what I gave them, the slots are very subtle. You may be over driving the tuba and lipping up to get the response and pitch centers. Relax and tune starting with the C in the staff. You should start feeling the more subtle and flatter slots the pros use. If this is what is happening, it is a very easy (cheap) thing for me to improve the response and slots of the tuba the next time you visit us at Dillon Music. Please call ahead. No, I can't just tell you by email how to do it.

Thank you so much! It's nice having advice from someone who actually helped create it

I'm curious Matt, is the original prototype still around somewhere?