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As I e-mailed Bloke last night, my mouthpiece cam late yesterday afternoon and I left soon afterward for a rather grueling brass ensemble rehearsal. Trying the mouthpiece for the very first time in warmups, I was astounded by the difference from my old mouthpiece to this new one. We put the Symphony and the #1 rim together for the purpose of smoothing out the typical [and annoying!] Mirafone "bark", aka "blatt," produced when you push a 186 a little too hard. Imagine my surprise when it did exactly what it was supposed to do! The sound was not suppressed or muffled, but the bark was gone, nearly impossible to force it to happen. As an added bonus, the lowest range of notes became much easier to focus than in the past. I kept asking myself if I was projecting what I *wanted* to happen, but the other tuba player commented,unasked, how much cleaner and louder was the low register.
I really love it when something actually does what it is intended to do!

ben wrote:I too tried out the Symphony in my 186 last night. I have noticed that the "Symphony" MP does challenge my higher register on the horn (point and shoot aspects as well as a slight flattening of pitch), where as the #2 cup does not have these detriments, but a more power sound (some may call that a benefit).

On my 186 BBb, I did notice an easier slotting of the 1-2 G [4th space], which has been a problem at times getting centered. The Ab, A, and Bb above were also quite nice, with no significant change on B and up.
The choice of the #1 or 2 rim is mainly one of comfort, whilst the work is done further along, as bloke explained it.

2 questions:

1) All the above posts have talked about relieving the 186 "bark," or how the upper register is affected -- how about intonation, tonality and response in the "cash register"?

2) Slotting: traditional mouthpieces, whether bowl 18-ish or funnel Helleberg-ish, both have short throats and rather open or conical backbores, which lend to wide slotting/lipping characteristics. For example, I can take a Kelly 18, and in the mid register lip almost a half step without too much degradation of tone, and in the lowest register, valves can become almost optional. OTOH, a LOUD 7, with its proprietary long throat-to-backbore transition, has to be one of the tightest slotting mouthpieces I have ever played. Razor-clean articulation to be sure, but to get proper resonance with fine tuning the pitch I was riding the slides like a combination circus juggler and trombonist. So how is the "slotting" with the symphonic blokepiece?

Thanks.

I use my BlokePieces® for all my slotting needs:

Edit for double post

iiipopes wrote:2 questions:

1) All the above posts have talked about relieving the 186 "bark," or how the upper register is affected -- how about intonation, tonality and response in the "cash register"?

2) Slotting: traditional mouthpieces, whether bowl 18-ish or funnel Helleberg-ish, both have short throats and rather open or conical backbores, which lend to wide slotting/lipping characteristics. For example, I can take a Kelly 18, and in the mid register lip almost a half step without too much degradation of tone, and in the lowest register, valves can become almost optional. OTOH, a LOUD 7, with its proprietary long throat-to-backbore transition, has to be one of the tightest slotting mouthpieces I have ever played. Razor-clean articulation to be sure, but to get proper resonance with fine tuning the pitch I was riding the slides like a combination circus juggler and trombonist. So how is the "slotting" with the symphonic blokepiece?

Thanks.

Slotting was either unaffected or slightly easier, as I said. The 4th space G, never a nice slot, was noticeably better. For some reason, the D below the staff took a few minutes to adjust to, but that was that. Intonation seems unchanged.
Never have I felt such a difference right away in a mouthpiece, all positive.

I guess I deserved the slot cars/machines posts. It's just that I was never good at either, and gave them both up: slot cars as a boy and slot machines after my 1st trip to Europe. Thanks.

And I am honored. Speaking of slotting, this is what I really like to slot into after a hard day at work: