Doug Elliott Mouthpiece System

[stevennorsworthy]

I’d like to report positively on the extreme level of finesse and fine tuning one can achieve by experimenting with the Doug Elliott mouthpiece system approach. First let’s all agree that there are so many different kinds of tuba designs, each with their tradeoffs and issues. Also, we each have different mouth and lip physical differences. So we wind up with an infinite number of difference from player/horn to player/horn. That being said, I recently acquired a MW F tuba, and as we all know that F tubas are all somewhat hard to play with consistent sound and focus over the whole range, this makes it a good test case. I tried 4 different cups, different shanks, and different rim contours and diameters from Doug. To make a long story short, each combination had its own ‘voice’ and tradeoffs throughout the whole range of the instrument. In my particular case, I wound up selecting the “N” cup (medium sized, per se) and a N130 rim (narrow contour and 1.30” diameter). That’s is not to say that the next player would select it even on the same instrument. It is to say that I was able to make a judgment that this combination worked for me on this horn. It had the best core sound over the whole range, and the best overall articulation where it was the hardest in the 2nd partial region bet low F and low B. I was able to nail that register cleanly and repeatedly from day to day, and still get great high overtones way above the staff all the way to double high C. I believe the experience was worth it, because the alternative would have been a huge variety of mouthpieces from various manufacturers all in the same acoustical environment to test, and all with the same freshness/condition of chops, which would have been all impossible. Thanks, Doug, for this extremely valuable optimization opportunity. Best regards, Steven Norsworthy