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Hello all,

I just came into possession of a neat little Couesnon Eb tuba, and I'm trying to figure out what type of mouthpiece to use with it. It's got a really, really small receiver--the Bach 1 1/2 G bass trombone mouthpiece I was using in it today barely fit. Does anyone out there know of a roughly tuba sized cup/rim with a shank that would be small enough for such an instrument? I'd like to investigate some cheaper mouthpieces before going with a more expensive custom mouthpiece (if I can't find anything pre-made, then I'll get a Doug Elliott of some kind).

Here's a shot of the new [old] horn: http://i.imgur.com/No7vGwQ.jpg

Thanks,

Aaron H

The "Herco" Eb tuba mouthpiece usually fits those old instruments perfectly. Not sure if they are still in production, but I'm sure you could check the used sources and track one down.

Chris Bluemel

The Denis Wick models without the "L" work well. I think Bloke has an appropriate shank available for the Imperial mouthpiece. If you can swing the cost, the Imperial gives you the best options. You can also have the receiver drilled out to Standard American shank or you can have the receiver replaced with a standard shank receiver. You should also determine if this is a low/high/or modern 440 pitch instrument. If you have work done on the shank, you should have it tuned to 440 too (assuming it is not modern pitch). These are usually not expensive restorations which will allow you to play it with a modern group.

It most likely takes a medium euphonium shank size.
No problem at all for my mouthpieces.
The Wick shank is nowhere near small enough.

AHynds wrote:bass trombone mouthpiece I was using in it today barely fit.

Could you expand on what "barely fit" means? How far in does it go?

I don't quite get the significance of the tuba price vs. mouthpiece price argument.

If you have a $200 tuba and a $200 mouthpiece that makes it usable, you have spent $400 on a perfectly good instrument. Sounds like a great deal to me.

tubablue wrote:The "Herco" Eb tuba mouthpiece usually fits those old instruments perfectly. Not sure if they are still in production, but I'm sure you could check the used sources and track one down.

Chris Bluemel

I have a Herco Eb tuba mouthpiece, but it basically has a large trombone shank size. It fits well in my Western German "La Sete" The cup is about the same diameter as a Bach 18.

My Eb Helicon has a European Baritone shank size. It is between a tenor and a bass trombone shank size. I discovered this while trying out a mouthpiece from my old Besson 2-20 baritone.

I couldn't find a "cheap" large mouthpiece with that shank, so I ended up buying a Shilke 60 bass trombone mouthpiece and milling down the shank in my drill press. That worked fine.

Why not change the receiver?