TubeNet

I'm looking for a good small ensemble to Orchestral F mouthpiece.

Any Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Lots of folks say they like this mouthpiece for F tubas: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=40671&start=0" target="_blank" target="_blank

Well, I only play CC, but I'm guessing Dave Houser's Solo would work...I've got one on order for my 3/4 CC Rudi...already have the Houser Symphony model with a small Helleberg rim and the delrin spacer...played a couple gigs with it on NY Eve and the rest of the band noticed the sound change... (Improvement!)

BTW, the Dave Houser mouthpiece and the Sellmansberger mouthpiece are the same thing, I think...somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

Also depends on you're horn and what you want it to sound like. I play on a 45slp and ive found the pt-65 and pt-72 to work nicely.

I like a large cup, not too shallow, with a very flat, moderately narrow rim. Couldn't find what I wanted, so I made one. I bought a used Laskey 30F, flattened the rim, buffed it, and sent it out for gold plating. For me, the result was spectacular. I like it better than any mouthpiece I've ever had for F tuba. If Laskey made a cup bigger than the 30, I would do the same for my CC tuba.

The trick, of course, is in the first sentence above. I already knew what combination of cup width, depth, and rim configuration would likely work best for me. It takes time to analyze that. Don't make the mistake of buying a mouthpiece just because some well-known player uses it. If that worked, they would all use the same one. Every combination of player/tuba is different.

I use a laskey 30c and a PT-64. I tend to use the PT-64 for orchestra excerpts and the laskey for solos. But I could easily see myself using the P-T 64 for everything. I have no good reason for choosing those other than they were recommended to me. Back when I owned a MW 45s I only had the pt-64. So several MP's were recommended by my teacher and I went to the store and got all of them and sat there for about an hour playing them. In the end, I could not justify buying one of those new MP's to replace my PT-64. Not that they were bad, but I just could not realize any major difference. I wouldn't mind suggestions on how to objectively and logically test different MP's so that I am not just fumbling around with a bunch of MP's. I have never been huge into equipment experimentation and I have just tried to make what I have work. But I can see benefit in having the proper MP.

Stefan

I'd reccomend a PT-64 and PT-65 combo. I like the 64 for solo playing as it gives me a bit more security in the extreme high register. I like the 65 for ensemble playing. Worked well on works like Symphonie Fantastique, Brahms Requiem, etc.

Good luck with your search.

I used a Mirafone C4 (TU-23) for a while and then I bought a Blokepiece solo #2 and haven't looked back.

I have a PT-64, but have never really taken to it. I used a PT-9 (the original numbering of the PT-64) on an old Musica F tuba about 20 years ago, and it was really nice in the upper register but rather oinky below the staff. I'm sure that was more me than the mouthpiece, though I didn't have the same issue when I bought the Yamaha 621. But I kept returning to contrabass mouthpieces on the Yamaha to make the low register more full, not realizing how much it was fuzzing up the tone in the upper register.

The Mike Finn MF-4 is a great F-tuba mouthpiece, and it eliminated that fuzz. The Sellmansberger Solo opens up the low range in comparison, but requires a little more effort to produce that characteristic sound that the MF4 makes easy--it can be a bit too crisp on a crisp-sounding tuba. I end up using the blokepiece more because of the music I usually play on F tuba. It all but eliminates the typical low C issue on my old-bore B&S.

Both of those mouthpieces also work very well on my Yamaha, and here the crisper tone of the Sellmansberger mouthpiece really gives the Yamaha life.

Rick "finding that F-tuba mouthpieces are much easier to manage on F tubas than contrabass mouthpieces" Denney