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Anyone try these Steve Ferguson mouthpieces? The link below is for their "L" series, which I believe stands for Laskey. There's also an "H" series, but stands for Burt Herrick and not Helleberg (it's described as Geib style). Then there's an "M" series, which stands for Larry Minnick. They certainly have a nice appearance.

https://www.hornguys.com/collections/tu ... mouthpiece" target="_blank

I asked Steve about the H a few weeks ago. He said it was not too large of a backbore, comfortable rim that's not too sharp. Good for medium or smaller tubas, or studio work. For larger tubas, the low register is going to feel too tight.

Pretty sure these are made by Jim New.

bort wrote:Pretty sure these are made by Jim New.

Yep, they are. I've got a bunch of them for Trombone, mainly the bass trombone line, but also two tenor pieces. every well made, great fit and finish, and everything on center. Most of the bass trombone line are based off of Larry Minick designs, and there are also some Minick style large bore tenor designs. They also have some Greg Black style trombone designs, somewhat like his most popular sizes, as the wait times these days for Greg Black mouthpieces are quite long.

My favorite of the bass trombone pieces so far is the JR, which is a replica of the one off Minick piece used by Jeff Reynolds. From what I heard it was an experiment on the shelf at Minick's shop, and he loved it.

I haven't looked at any of the tuba offerings, as I'm not really a good enough tuba player for it to matter. However they do seem to be quite popular, and one at least looks to be a replica of a one off.

Speaking of Jim, anyone bought one of his keyrings yet?

http://james-r-new.com/store.html" target="_blank

I have a mouthpiece ordered from him, and will pick up one of these keyrings then too. I've always had a handful of the Miraphone ones, will be cool to have a different but similar one.

cktuba wrote:I just wish the L series had a 30B copy.

Fire off an email. Maybe they've been thinking about it but aren't sure of the level of interest.

From the website: "Our replica mouthpieces are made in Los Angeles by James New in Utah." What, now?

Their M mouthpiece sounds kind of ideal for me, but on sale for $220 (down from $300)? Prolly not gonna happen.

$220 for a well made, low production run mouthpiece doesn't sound bad at all to me. No, it's not cheap... But then again, it's not cheap.

circusboy wrote:From the website: "Our replica mouthpieces are made in Los Angeles by James New in Utah." What, now?

Their M mouthpiece sounds kind of ideal for me, but on sale for $220 (down from $300)? Prolly not gonna happen.

Looks like a Typo. They used to be made in the LA area, but after Kanstul dissolved and James New set up shop in Utah, they kept that relationship going I think.

However, I have no idea why the M-series is more expensive than the H and L series mouthpieces. Maybe they are less popular?

Just got a Ferguson L30F to go with my new (to me) F tuba (moving down from bass trombone - challenge ..). Beautiful mouthpiece; very high quality copy of the Laskey 30F (and available without a wait!).

I always wondered if the price of these replica mouthpieces included some sort of licensing fee to the designer of the original -- Laskey developed the IP to make this mouthpiece effective; should other mouthpiece makers be allowed to copy it and sell it based on the reputation developed by the original designer?

Ok, now I'm feeling bad about buying a replica ...

I don't know how close of a "replica" the Laskey pieces are. They also may have made their own tweaks. Bach definitely still makes mouthpieces, but you see lots of makers describing their pieces in terms of the 5G, and plenty of companies make replicas. We'll see what happens once Laskey Mouthpieces start up production again.

Very true - I do not have a true Laskey 30F for comparison. I just know the dimensions quoted for the Laskey and the Ferguson pieces match.