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Hello Everyone,

I have just bought a "new" (well, second hand) tuba - a 4/4 York CC. Can anyone give me some mouthpiece suggestions for it? I tried the PT 88 I'd been using on my PT6, but it made the horn quite flat overall (even with the tuning slide pushed in all the way). I'm using a Conn Helleburg at the moment, which seems to help the intonation, but according to my bass trombone player the sound is not as good as the 88. Any suggestions gratefully appreciatted!

stupid question follows:

are the mouthpieces fitting well? if it's happening with basically everything you try, maybe the whole horn is a bit long?

Thanks for your reply. The mouthpieces fit pretty well, although they don't go in as far as on a modern horn (It has a non-standard sized receiver, but the difference is small). The previous owner used a Cooley Helleberg, but I don't think he'd tried many other options. I think the 88 was too big for the horn (it is a 4/4) hence the flatness. The faltness disappeared when I switched to the Conn Helleberg.

I don't know the age of your horn, but the original York & Sons 19 tuba moutpiece that I have definately has a smaller shank mouthpiece than a modern mouthpiece, more like the early American size.

I play a York that was cut from a BBb to a CC by Bob Rusk. It has a 19" bell and a .687" valve bore with 4 piston valves and one rotor. I use and Dillon M1C mouthpiece from Steve Dillon's shop in New Jersey (USA). It produces a large dark sound with no major intonation problems. It has a great low register.

If your York was cut to a CC from a BBb tuba, they tend to be on the flat side of the pitch. I had my main tuning slide shortened a bit and it works well.

Thanks for the replies. I'll have to try one of the dillon mouthpieces. The horn was built in 1939 and it's actually a factory original CC. The intonation gets better the more I play it, so I think the flatness may have been something to do with the way I was playing at first...

Try a medium or medium-large cup/bowl shaped mouthpiece. My experience with a couple of horns that played chronically flat, one of which was a York, was that the pitch was a bit closer with one of these pieces.