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Hi,

Just noodling around on my newly acquired 20K, thanks to Harv Hartman for fixing it up.

I see this horn ships with a #2 mouthpiece - they obviously think that's a good choice ... Should I consider it? What are they like?

At the moment I'm sticking a Yamaha 67C4 in there and it sounds pretty good. 66D4 also works, but feels a touch small for the big instrument.

Any thoughts? I imagine #2 mouthpieces are common over in the US ...

I thought about this recently while reviewing mouthpieces for my 40K. I have a variety of options, but once again could not do better than my Conn 7B. Which I agree, is very close to the old Conn 2, though with my particular mouthpieces the 7B comes out a little brighter and clearer. I have some bigger mouthpieces, if you think a big tuba ought to have a big mouthpiece, but I personally have trouble keeping the pitch up in the upper half of my range with something like a Marcinkiewicz H3. The 7B or 2 sounds great and it's easier to play in tune.

Hmm, I've got Yamaha 66 which might give me a similar sound, no?

What would be cool is having the Sellmansberger range over here in Europe ...

If it's more or less a copy of the Schilke 66, yes - that's a great mouthpiece - but it's a little smaller. For my face, the 2 / 7B hits closer to the spot.

I like them for big "American" style tubas and sousaphones - the medium sized funnel cup gives a full sound on those horns but not a tubby sound as a "bucket" might.

I have a Schilke 66 and it is very different to the Yamaha 66, which their website says is like a Helleberg. I see that I actually have a 66B, which is like shallow helleberg, so the website says.

So, Conn #2 and Conn 7B are the same thing?

I keep a Conn 2 around as a 'test' mouthpiece... along side a Bach 18 and a few others that were very common a few years ago. I'll bet there are beat up Conn 2 MP's in the back corner of a drawer in the desk of about every high school band director in America!

Those are not my choices for the type of playing I do. But... they seem to work well to just give a horn a 'toot' before turning it back to a customer.

PaulTkachenko wrote: So, Conn #2 and Conn 7B are the same thing?

For perspective, one should probably ask, are Conn 2 and Conn 2 the same thing, etc.

Like I say, for me the 7B sounds a little different. I can't detect any physical difference I think would cause that, but I can't detect differences in backbore etc. The rims are different - sharper and flatter on the 7B.

I understand that this cup profile also appears in the Conn Hellebergs in the '40s and earlier, i.e. that "7B" is more or less the classic Helleberg if there is one.