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If you can’t find “THE Mouthpiece” and the custom mouthpiece guys are giving you a “Buy 10 and Get One Free” punch card, you may be going about it all wrong. Why not instead just buy the mouthpiece that feels best to you and is easiest to play with a nice sound. THEN, find or build the tuba(s) that work(s) best with the mouthpiece that you know fits you and feels comfortable to be with.
Think about the money it could save you. Buy a good playing and sounding mouthpiece that feels comfortable first. Then because new tubas are so expensive, you won't be buying two or three new tubas every year trying to find "the one" that will make all your problems go away. I have a mouthpiece that works great for me and I just build and/or modify my tubas to work best with the mouthpiece I already like.
If you can’t ever find “THE Mouthpiece” that works for you on your tuba, maybe you should have found the most comfortable mouthpiece first and then shopped for a tuba that works well with the mouthpiece that works with your chops.
It’s not crazy to try a new strategy if the old one fails you. What say ye unfulfilled mouthpiece junkies?

This has been a personal idea of mine for many years now. I just posted this yesterday because I was wiped out at the end of the day and didn't want to work on anything that I might mess up in the last 30 minutes.
It's good for business to sell lots of mouthpieces. I just think that some people get it wrong.

My opinion and a couple of dollars will get a cup of coffee.

I would say you probably had some interesting customers in the shop today.

Wasn't it OJ's lawyer - the late Johnnie Cochran who once said:

"if the mouthpiece don't fit - you can't commit!"

Interesting point Matt, in my limited experience I have never thought of this approach. However just to play devils advocate I played for years on what "came with the horn" and it wasn't until I started private lessons that I found a schilke 69c that changed my whole sound and perspective. Now that being said your approach will work "if" someone were able to find a mouthpiece in the first place. If they, like me had been playing the wrong horn/mouthpiece combination it's tough to figure out what the missing link "is". So for those fortunate enough to find that magic mouthpiece they can by all means build the horn around it, for those of us that didn't know better it may take a little more trial and error...

JJ
( haven't played in 20 years, heed at your own risk)

Oh I'm probably the one that sparked the original post lol...

JJ