TubeNet

There's not much info on either of their websites about the rim (thickness/round or flat/etc)... Does anybody use either of these kinds of mpc's? Care to chime in about them? Perhaps a pic or two The 'picture' on the websites aren't very descriptive...

Both sites aren't too good at responding to emails

thanks!

The JK Exclusive mpc's I have are the T1-AA and T1-B. They look and feel like the original Rose Solo Miraphone mpc. The rim is wide, rounded and has a minimally sharp bite. The nice thing about the exclusive line is the wide choice of inner rim diameters, cup depths and backbores. Once you establish your preferred inner rim diameter you have a choice of several cup depths going from AA (extra deep) up to F or G (very shallow). As the cups get shallower the backbores decrease accordingly. One could have 3 or 4 of these at different depths for different keyed tubas and/or different ensemble situations. They are very affordable - < $100 for the gold plated version.

I have JK 3AA and 2A. Measuring rims always seems like a subjective activity: Where on the rounded part to you stop? The rims on both are a little wider than PT44 and, given that the PT44 is specified as 7.5mm, I would put the JK at 8mm. It feels a skosh smaller than the Miraphone TU29 rim, but rim width isn't on Miraphone's web site. All the other specs are there, but no rim width.

I'd say the rim contour is "semi-flat" whatever that means. Take one of the UN-sharp inner edge PT rims and make is a little wider, and you might have JK rim.

SplatterTone wrote:Measuring rims always seems like a subjective activity: Where on the rounded part to you stop?

Not on the rounded part, as far as I know -- rim width should include the inner and outer rounded parts (I'm sure someone will correct me if I've got it wrong ).

Vernier or dial calipers make it easy: measure the inner and outer diameters, subtract the inner from the outer and divide by two.

If you slap the calipers around the rim and measure, my experience has been that you often come up with something different than the official spec. It seems that it is common for the measurement on rounded parts to go from where somebody subjectively decided the typical lip would actually be affected by it. It's a proper thing to do, I think, but it makes completely objective comparisons a little difficult.

SplatterTone wrote:If you slap the calipers around the rim and measure, my experience has been that you often come up with something different than the official spec. It seems that it is common for the measurement on rounded parts to go from where somebody subjectively decided the typical lip would actually be affected by it. It's a proper thing to do, I think, but it makes completely objective comparisons a little difficult.

There doesn't seem to be any uniform way of describing a mouthpiece's "interface dimensions" -- Marcinkiewicz gives you the ID and OD; Bach gives you the ID, along with a verbal description of the rim width and shape; Conn gives you no numbers at all ...

It would be nice if there was a "mouthpiece description format standard", so we could compare apples to apples, but I'm not holding my breath (the cyanotic look doesn't seem to be very popular this year )!

If I remember correctly, the JK 4B's rim felt very much like the Miraphone C4's. I suspect a JK 4C and Miraphone C4 are the same thing (totally irrelevant).

Kevin Hendrick wrote:

SplatterTone wrote:If you slap the calipers around the rim and measure, my experience has been that you often come up with something different than the official spec. It seems that it is common for the measurement on rounded parts to go from where somebody subjectively decided the typical lip would actually be affected by it. It's a proper thing to do, I think, but it makes completely objective comparisons a little difficult.

There doesn't seem to be any uniform way of describing a mouthpiece's "interface dimensions" -- Marcinkiewicz gives you the ID and OD; Bach gives you the ID, along with a verbal description of the rim width and shape; Conn gives you no numbers at all ...

It would be nice if there was a "mouthpiece description format standard", so we could compare apples to apples, but I'm not holding my breath (the cyanotic look doesn't seem to be very popular this year )!

The one thing I found out in my mouthpiece search is that the dimesions that are quoted mean almost nothing. Mouthpieces that had smaller specs felt bigger....ones with small throats felt free blowing...all you can do is try to stay in a range and keep trying them until one feels right.....or keep using the one you got until it feels right.

I've got a JK Exclusive that I use on my Besson 983, I like it very much. I picked a 4B, as I was looking for something in between my Dillon S3 that came with the horn, and the PT-84 that I've had for years. The PT-84 has a wide, cushy rim that feels identical to the S3. Note that I said feels identical, I don't know specs at all.

The S3 is way shallow, the PT-84 is way deep. I still use both. The JK-E-4B splits the difference nicely. Several of us have remarked how similar it looks to the Miraphone mouthpieces, the C4 and the Rose Orchestral, and if I was a betting man, I'd bet I know who makes Miraphone's mouthpieces.

If you like a thin, sharp, Helleberg-style rim, the JK is probably not for you. I'm all about comfort nowadays, so I'm all over the JK Exclusive. I went to Dillon Music for mine, and they had the full range of diameters and depths. Depending on your preferences, it's entirely possible to set yourself up with several mpc's with the same rim for your different axes.

I've used a 5A and 4B and like both with my King 2341. Neither works well with the VMI 3301.

One thing to be aware of- the JK exclusive line has a large "european" shank. They fit well in the large receivers on some European horns and on the newer King 2341, but they don't insert fully into the "standard" American sized receiver. This may affect the playing on some horns, like the VMI, and may not affect others.

As others have said, the great thing about the JK exclusive line is that they come in 9 different cup widths, and for each cup width, there are 5 or 6 different depths. But only one rim (wide and well rounded) and only one shank size.

Bill Anderson

Tubaryan12 wrote:
The one thing I found out in my mouthpiece search is that the dimesions that are quoted mean almost nothing. Mouthpieces that had smaller specs felt bigger....ones with small throats felt free blowing...all you can do is try to stay in a range and keep trying them until one feels right.....or keep using the one you got until it feels right.

Indeed. Using whatever specs are provided as a rough guideline (along with anecdotal/subjective input from other tubists) is probably the best way to go. (This is the OP's basic strategy, btw.)

Eric "whose TU33 doesn't feel like a 33.5 mm ID" L.