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The 25 I believe, is what usually ships with Sousaphones. It would be a bit smaller than the 24 and will have a brighter sound.

schlepporello wrote:Even though I don't neccessarily want the black one, it's still a great price and a great deal. It'll give me an extra MP to experiment with too!

I have the Kelly 18, 25, and Helleberg. All are fun to experiment with and they appear to be reliable copys of their namesakes. I found the 25 to be pretty worthless unless you are paying a teeny tiny Couesnon Eb. The 18 is a better match for my Carl Wunderlich BBb 4V rotary GDR stencil and the Helleberg does a pretty good job of replacing my REAL Conn Helleberg 7B on my big King EEb. However, in my opinion, NONE of the Kelly mouthpieces can come close to the projection qualities of REAL metal mouthpieces. On the other hand, the plastic MPs seen to me to be more comfortable than even some of my much more expensive gold-plated MPs. I did a total of 17 hours of stand-up gigs in one weekend a couple of weeks ago and I can assure you that the Kelly 18 was a great help.

I emailed Kelly a while back to see if they might be able to experiment with some different engineered plastics to see if the performance of their MPs might improve. Some of you plastics guys/engineers out there might offer your suggestions too.... but I think molding Kelly MPs out of Fortran or Valox might get the mechanical properties a little closer to that of metal.

As an experiment, I am going to apply some weight to the Kelly 18 MP to see if the projection improves.

I've been wanting to try dipping the rim -- possible just rolling the outer edge of the rim -- of my Conn-Helleberg in plasti-dip as an experiment. The wife likes my whiskers, but I have a hard time getting a good seal. I'm thinking if I dipped JUST the rim, it might work okay.

For those concerned about the chemicals, btw, I looked into this idea a couple of years ago, and was assured that once it cures Plasti-dip is stable and non-toxic (for skin contact).
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Joe Baker, who's just been too cheap -- I mean frugal -- to fork over the cost of a whole can when he only needs a teaspoon-full.

wnazzaro wrote:What about putting a plastic rim on a metal mouthpiece. I would think this would give the most comfort and best sound, though there would probably still be a difference with all metal.

Well, sure. But then you are back to a $180 or $200 Doug Elliott, instead of a $25 mouthpiece that if you drop it in the middle of a street parade you won't cry over it.

The point is to use a plastic that can be cheaply injection molded. If you have to machine it, cost goes way up.

Rick "who doesn't really need a disposable mouthpiece himself but who sees the value in it" Denney