Tenor tuba MP in bass tuba

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windshieldbug
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Post by windshieldbug »

Old Eb tuba mouthpieces (say, pre 1900) were actually the size of modern bass trombone mouthpieces both in cup size and shank.
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Kevin Hendrick
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Post by Kevin Hendrick »

The largest "bass trombone - tenor tuba" mouthpieces available are very close to (and in a few cases overlap) the smallest "bass tuba" mp sizes, so that shouldn't be a problem. You'd need to pull your main tuning slide about half the length difference between the TT mouthpiece and the tuba 'piece (pull about .4" or 10 mm for a bass 'bone mp, or about .2" or 5 mm for a Marcinkiewicz contrabass 'bone mp (105, 106, or 107)).
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OldsRecording
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Euph MP in Tuba

Post by OldsRecording »

My son brought home a really awful (and obvously abused) 1/4 sized Amati from school to practice on, and I discovered my euphonium mpce (an Arthur Lehman 1M) not only fit, but I was actually able to get a decent tone.
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LoyalTubist
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Post by LoyalTubist »

When I was younger, I used to go for the smallest, deepest mouthpiece I could find. Now I use a nice, big Helleberg on all my tubas. Believe it or not, it actually improves the sound in above the staff. In graduate school, I read some articles by Herbert Clarke and he always stipulated for trumpet players to use the biggest mouthpiece they could find. I figured if it worked for trumpet players, why not tuba players. In later writings of Clarke, he did say that tuba players should play the biggest mouthpiece they can find that works with their particular instrument.
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