Mystery Mouthpiece

[TexTuba]

[Rick Denney]

Latley I've been playing on the mouthpiece that came with my St. Pete. It says Tuba Exchange model Rose LS around the rim. A google search yeided nothing, does anyone have any information?
Failing a positive ID what is the proper way to mesure the dimensions of a mouthpiece?

Some of these were made by Terry Warburton, but there was apparently a conflict and a Terry had a sell a bunch of them directly at blowout prices. I got one of those. It's a very large Helleberg-style mouthpiece, substantially bigger than my PT-48. I find that I had troubles in the upper register with it, and what it did in the lower register wasn't worth the trouble. It's okay, but I prefer my other mouthpieces. I found it lacked color (i.e., it suppressed those all-important upper overtones).

I don't know who made them after Terry, or whether they have the same internal shape.

Some have said that the St. Pete leadpipe is fairly narrow considering the bore of the instrument, and it bottles up what should be a very open-feeling instrument. I have no opinion on this myself. But if it's true, then a very large mouthpiece with very little restriction might help compensate for it. That may be why Dr. Rose went big when he was asked to design a mouthpiece especially for the St. Pete.

I was trying it on my Miraphone and one my York Master. The YM prefers a very large mouthpiece, and I use a Doug Elliot T cup with a T-6 shank. The Miraphone is more flexible, and I like a PT-48 on it. The TE Rose was even less colorful than the Elliott, and much less than the PT-48.

Rick "trending back to smaller mouthpieces these days" Denney

[Rick Denney]

Marcinkiewicz made the Tuba Exchange Rose Model after the relationship between TE and Warburton ended. I actually preferred the Warburton version on my HB2 at the time and until fairly recently was looking to acquire one. I am now using a G&W Caver and plan on sticking with that. However, Rick if you ever want to get rid of that Warburton I will gladly trade you either a Marcinkiewicz Rose Model or a DEG ME5 for it.

I'm willing to trade it for someting, but what are the other choices?

Rick "who would consider a Finn 2*" Denney

* okay, that was a joke. Even if sold by weight, the Finn would be worth more.

[Rick Denney]

Rick, I don't have much else that would be considered good trade bait.

Don't give up yet.

Rick "for whom cash is always good trade fodder" Denney