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Hello fellow tubanetters,

I was wondering if I could have some advice from people who have played owned a BMB F tuba. It is my first F tuba and I have not been able to find much information or detailed reviews aside from the ones that just say this horn plays big and well.

Since it is such a larger f tuba than my schools pt10 copy what mouthpieces do you guys recomend or use? Smaller hellberg 7b's or laskey type mouthpieces?

I was also wondering if there is a fingering chart with alternate fingerlings due to the dependent F valve, I read somewhere mentioning there is one for the Eb Blb they got from Barth.

And lastly, how did you manage to close in on the notes with the wider slots: lipbends/slurring or isn't that something that closes in as you play and get to know the tuba? I'm having trouble lipping up C# D D# ad E, everything's else is amaizing and in tune.

Thanks for any and all advice

Hi-
Try the mouthpiece that came with the horn...the one that came with the he horn-Anon. 'Barth Helleberg,' or something along the lines of a smaller Conn Helleberg/7B.

Here is a fingering chart for dependent 5th valves:

https://get.google.com/albumarchive/109 ... source=pwa" target="_blank

Really, just 2 & 4 for low B and 2-3-4 for low A...

As far as slotting, what range of C#, D, D#, & E are we talking about...below the staff, in the staff, or above the staff?

Mark

The pes just below the staff, sadly I ddon't d not get the Barth hellberg :/, someone in this forum mentioned they had cut down the 1st slide to help

The Denis Wick Heritage 3SL works beautifully on my BMB F. (My J-445 has the 18" bell and the original style 5th valve tubing.) I wasn't quite satisfied with the clarity, agility, and tone I was getting with my PT-65, Canadian Brass MB-64 or G&W Bora. So I did some research and made a list of mouthpieces to try that seemed to have the physical characteristics for which I was searching. The 3SL was the first one I ordered, and it has been SO GOOD that I haven't bothered with the rest of the list.

FWIW

Don't be tempted to fall into the trap of thinking you need a small specialized mouthpiece for this (or really any) F tuba. Similar logic applies to large mouthpieces on large tubas. The BMB F happily accepts a wide range and sounds good doing it. Had a similar conversation with Dick Barth about it and he confirmed my suspicion. I ended up going with a Parker CJH CB M which would be considered a medium mouthpiece on a CC.

I have an unused Barth Helleberg in my collection if you want to try it.

The Barth Helleberg is very similar to the old Conn Helleberg 7B and the Conn 2 which is quite similar to the Cooley Helleberg which is similar to the Canadian Brass Jacobs Orchestral. It should be easy to find one of those, which I think all work well on my BMB 445.

A smaller mouthpiece does not work well on my horn.