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I know notting, as Colonel Klink so often said, by I would think a mouthpiece with a smaller throat opening than your current mouthpiece would help you conserve air. That just seems to make sense to me.

Actually, that was SGT. Schultz.

Bruno Tilz has a huge variety of mouthpieces, and their list tells their bore sizes for all mouthpieces. Blokepieces have a wide variety of bore and throat sizes and shapes. Since they're modular, you can experiment till you find what you like.

Yes, you're right, eupho. It was Sgt. Schultz. As I said, I know notting!

Go with the Blokepiece Solo cup, narrow your rim selection to somthing more like 32.6 or 32.3 and use the either the "0" or "1" shank. Going a little smaller should help. I have found that the larger the tuba the smaller the mpc and smaller the tuba the larger the mpc works. Recently i switched from the blokepiece symphony model on my larger horns to the solo on my 6/4 and the imperial on my 5/4. Going a little smaller doesnt have much impact on the sound because the larger tubas have a little wiggle room.

Since your dealing with air efficiency, going a little smaller should help as it will be easier to steer the horn compared to a larger mpc. If you have access to a line of mpc's, start with the smallest first and work your way up to see what fits best. You may sacrifice a little on the core but the gains should out weigh them making it worth it.

Keep us posted.

I and a community band mate had good luck moving from Conn Helleburg to a stainless Giddings and Webster Diablo. Clearer, more focused sound on our BBb Yamaha and Besson with our old chops. http://www.gwmouthpieces.com/collection ... mouthpiece" target="_blank

There is usually a 25% coupon floating around for G&W mouthpieces if you look around.

fulerzoo wrote:In my sixth decade,

If you want to feel really old ... I bet a quarter you're really in your seventh decade, if you count from the beginning.

My tuba fell over and jammed the mouthpiece a little in the receiver, and it has been playing kind of exceptional since. You could try that. I personally think the mouthpiece you describe doesn't sound right for the tuba. When I had one, I used a Conn 2 mouthpiece; Faxx makes a 7B clone that would be similar.