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I have an old Alex mouthpiece made from nickel silver (I think) which is a little bit like a slightly shallower C4 and is fun to play on.

Question is are these all the same or are there a variety of styles? Mine has had the monster shank turned-down...

Cheers,
MP

There's considerable variety in Alex mouthpieces. The one I use for my 164 is marked "78" and made of nickelsilver. Huge shank and an enormous mouthpiece, and they claim to have never made it.

Their labeling doesn't seam to have been codified until fairly recently in their history. All three of mine are maked with only the brand (except the "78") and are wildly different in every possible respect except the enormous shanks.

Alexander... the art, not the science.

J.c.S.

FWIW,

I have a friend that has an Alex and I found a mouthpiece on ebay about a year or so ago that was supposed to fit only large shank Alex's. The mouthpiece in question is a Peranntuci 10. It does fit the horn quite well, is a rather large shank that won't fit a normal shank(ie our other horns) and works great with the horn.

Rob

I have one of these nickel silver "Alexander-Mainz" mouthpieces with the monster (.580") shank.

Anybody want to PM me with an offer to buy it?

Though it is technically not an "Alexander" mouthpiece,

I've got an old Hablowitz mouthpiece made for an Alexander (marked with a GBH logo) that fits my Giardinelli import 163 CC perfectly. Remember though, mine has the larger-than-euro-but-not-kaiser-sized receiver. It is as very wide and very shallow (I feel it is more shallow than a C4). The rim is C4ish, but probably even wider. It has a very tight thoat and, as like the others described here, is nickel silver.

As has been discussed before, adaptors were available "back in the day" to use nearly any given mouthpiece on an Alexander. However, Perantucci mouthpieces were available with a special Alexander sized shank. I've bought and sold a couple of them in the last few years, including the PT-10 mentioned here (I think) that was on ebay because the shanks have all been too large to work on my Alexander (FYI--two receiver sizes made, at least...Alexander wasn't real consistent).

The last time I checked, Alexander offered 4 different contrabass tuba mouthpieces, numbered 33,34,35, and 36. The 33 is rather shallow and fits the description of the original poster's mouthpiece, and they get larger from there. The 36 is a pretty large mouthpiece, but only with a medium-deep cup. Alexander mouthpieces are pretty reasonably-priced, and are great if you own an Alex.

I keep Alexander adaptors in stock, for those who would rather use a mere mortal-sized mouthpiece shank.