Heavyweight Tuba Mouthpieces

[Gravid]

Acquired both in trades. Both have only light insertion marks, otherwise in excellent condition. No knicks or scratches, shanks are true. Just polished.

• Mike Finn 4, $125 + S/H

• Warburton Al Carter, $125 + S/H

$225 + S/H for both

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders ... HrFQChjLiR

[PRANAMAN98]

Interested in the Al Carter! What’re the specs on it?

[Toobist]

I can chime in here.

When I worked with Terry Warburton on my mouthpiece, I told him I didn't need any specs. I did this because I didn't want any predisposed opinions while trying out the many prototypes. But! I told him the mouthpieces I've used and what about them I liked most or worked best.

The PT-50 was my CC mouthpiece for ten or so years before I changed to a Shilke HII, finding that my cleanliness of attack vastly improved over the PT-50. Then, my teacher/mentor gave me a call out of the blue, and he suggested I try a Park Offenloch he'd fallen in love with. The heavy mpc blew me away and did everything I liked the schilke for, but to a greater degree. Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Sibelius... all the huge, loud, low, rhythmic stuff was a breeze and with crisp fronts on the notes that I had to work so hard for with other mouthpieces.
When Terry Warburton and I talked about what I wanted, I told him about those mpcs and how they worked for me. The offenloch was surprisingly versatile, and I used it for everything from quintet to orchestra, and I wanted that. He would send me a prototype, and I would tell him how say... the upper middle range didn't slot on one prototype, intonation was out of control above the staff on one, one was too inefficient and sucked the air out of me, but by version 7, with my trusting Terry to make adjustments according to my qualitative observations, I had an efficient, versatile, well-in-tune, robust, low-register monster with a rich and reliable upper register.

I, a confident professional musician, realized that I didn't have the experience that Terry had. I know what works and what's comfortable, but the direct relationships between rim shape/size, diameter, bore, taper, cup depth and contour... oh jeez. I would never find my mouthpiece if I made requests like, "maybe a deeper cup," or, "sharper inner rim," or, "bigger backbone," etc. The relationship between all these properties is the mystical part that Terry knows far better than I.
The one thing I requested was for the wall thickness to be consistent (heavy) from the rim to beyond the throat.

Terry called it the Al Carter doorknob. Not me.... well, not to my face.

I'm so lucky to have THE mouthpiece for me. I use it on my Walter Nirschl 4/4 and have never wanted any else. The Warburton Al Carter Sig. mouthpiece (V7) is perfect for me.

If my aesthetic appeals to you, i.e., you like mpcs like the PT-50, SHIi, Offenloch, I'm confident you'll enjoy my signature mouthpiece. Give it a shot and let me know!

[Gravid]

Thanks, Al. I’ve never been one for the heavy weight Mouthpieces, but your backstory kind of makes me want to keep it and try it out. Or at least raise the price

[Toobist]

Thanks, Al. I’ve never been one for the heavy weight Mouthpieces, but your backstory kind of makes me want to keep it and try it out. Or at least raise the price

Ha!

[11annienorm]

PM sent

[Gravid]

MF4 still available, willing to trade for Dillon M1C in similar condition

[Gravid]

MF4 still available, $100 + S/H