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Hello! Sorry if I a make an obvious question but, as I ve read, Warren Deck used 24AW, and in the videos I´ve seen of the New York Philharmonic he looks to use a mouthpiece that is not his own Houser, as well in the Canadian Brass videos. So when he used his Houser big paper weight? And wich number? Just curious. Thank you so much for your time!

I took a few lessons from him in the late 80s. I think he had a Giardinelli of his own design. Something like a 24AW cup and an 18 rim. Somebody else will probably know more. After the Orfeo Deck craze passed he was using a Stork which the Stork company still has listed on their web site. Not sure about the in betweens and the latest.

Oh right, I forgot about Stork as an option.

If all else fails (and after you exhaust your options otherwise), maybe you could ask Warren himself.

Warren Deck had a long career as a professional tuba player, starting with the Houston Symphony ('77-'79) and New York Philharmonic ('79-'01). During that time Warren owned and played many tubas and many mouthpieces. He is known to have experimented extensively with his own designs for both tubas and mouthpieces before ultimately ending up working with Meinl Weston and Dave Houser on the models we all know of today.

So, there is almost no telling what he was using and when unless Warren remembers or kept records of such things. My guess is that with the sheer volume of playing he was doing, he didn't bother to keep such records. And remember, too, that the Houser Deck models were a mid-to late 1990s item so he played many years on mouthpieces other than those and probably even switched as he felt necessary once he did have the Houser pieces.

From what I've seen and read, Mr Deck pretty much always stayed with mouthpieces with 24AW-Origins, usually scooped out in the cup to a more standard 32.6 - 32.9mm range. He liked big throats for sure!
Also worth remembering that during Mr Deck's playing career the trends moved from standard weight mouthpieces, to skeletonised (and we know he used some of those), to heavy weight.

So as others have said, what you've seen is likely just whatever he was using at the time, but it *probably* meets the 24AW-Origin spec.

Much interesting information!!! but there is something I dont get ( sorry if It is obvious) but, what do you mean with skeletonised?

joshealejo wrote:Much interesting information!!! but there is something I dont get ( sorry if It is obvious) but, what do you mean with skeletonised?

A mouthpiece that has been skeletonized will have the extra metal removed from the exterior of the cup, so that the outside wall of the cup is the same shape as the inside wall of the cup.

To my way of thinking, where the extra mass is placed on the exterior of the cup is a significant part of the mystical art of mouthpiece design. The exterior shape should not only be pleasing to the eye, but the placement of the extra mass affects how the mouthpiece plays. Really outstanding mouthpiece designs are beautiful AND play great.

I only met him once for a moment, but his old mentor told me "Warren could make a chair sound good".

I got a Masterclass with him in 2014!! He played just note...an F ...on an very old Amaty, we knew he wasnt playing for about 10 years...but that F..was THE F!!! enough to show us who was in front of us!!!