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Right now I am playing on an old beat up Bach 18, but the plating's a little worn through on the rim where the lips come contact with it. When buying a new Bach, what are the chances that it'll be nearly identical to the old one?

If you want very high consistency from one sample to the next sample, you have few options, but stainless steel mouthpieces turned on a computer controlled lathe.

Klaus

It also depends on how worn the tooling was when the Bach you're used to was made. I have a Mt. Vernon Bach 18 that I started using in high school and used through college and beyond. It doesn't feel quite like any other 18 I've tried. Your 18 may be one of the more consistent ones, or it may be like one of the one-offs. All you can do is try them out.

By the way, I know a fair number of people who prefer the Blessing 18 to the Bach.

Isn’t the problem with the Bach mouthpieces, like with other brands made the old fashioned way, that the inner dimension will shrink over time when the tools are worn and resharpened?

Before I found the Yeo custom mouthpiece for bass bone and euph, I considered having a custom mouthpiece made for me. One shop would make me a mouthpiece. They told me they would want me test the bare brass version before the plating. They also told me that the final result would not be the same as the one I had experienced when doing the test. The plating would shrink the inner dimensions. Not very much, but noticeably. That made me loose interest in the project.

Klaus

GC wrote:
By the way, I know a fair number of people who prefer the Blessing 18 to the Bach.

I have a Blessing 18 that I don't play because it seem to me to be a very different beast, the rim is wider by design and there may be other variables that I'm not aware of. To me it seems quite a bit smaller as well.

I'm thinking I might have to go through a few old ones to find one I like. Also, I can get the one I have replated, which hopefully won't change the feel too much. I would like to try plating only the rim, which would exclude shrinking the bowl diameter.

...what are the chances that it'll be nearly identical to the old one?

Don't know how old your Bach 18 is, but based upon my experience, not very. I would suggest that you either 1] have your old 18 refurbished and re-plated or 2] buy a Blessing 18.

I have a Bach 18 that my parents bought for me when I was a freshman in high school way back in 1967. Played it through HS and college and a couple years after college. Long story short, it was pretty beat up when I resumed playing the tuba six years ago. I bought a new Bach 18 (along with a lot of other mpcs I was trying out). The new Bach 18 was not the same as my old 18. I also bought a Blessing 18. It was very close to my old 18. I then decided last year to have my old 18 refurbished and re-plated. It plays exactly like my old 18.

Now, I am still curious about the new Bachs. If they are produced on a computer controlled machine, it seems the tolerances would be closer to spec.

fairweathertuba wrote:Right now I am playing on an old beat up Bach 18, but the plating's a little worn through on the rim where the lips come contact with it. When buying a new Bach, what are the chances that it'll be nearly identical to the old one?

Zero.

iiipopes wrote:

fairweathertuba wrote:Right now I am playing on an old beat up Bach 18, but the plating's a little worn through on the rim where the lips come contact with it. When buying a new Bach, what are the chances that it'll be nearly identical to the old one?

Zero.

Brutal but honest.