I then went back to grad school, started a career, a family…all of which resulted in a 27 year hiatus from the tuba. I resumed playing five years ago when my son started playing the trombone. I found that I still had the same “issue” with the King 26 (which I had kept all these years) – still loved the rich tone and the power reserve when needed – still couldn’t adjust to the wide rim. My old Bach 18 was really too beat up to play anymore. And now I found a whole new world of tuba mouthpiece choices that I did not know existed (and perhaps didn’t exist) back in the mid 60s through the mid 70s. So, during these last five years, I have tried a pretty sizeable number of mpcs. It was fun, and I guess, part of the tuba hobby experience. However, no single mouthpiece ever rose to the top of the heap and said “I’m the one for you and your King”…until now.
How did I find “the one”? A few weeks ago I was reading a post on TubeNet, and in that post I learned that the design of the Mike Finn MF1 was based upon my old King 26 mpc (with some improvements and updates). I was very intrigued and went to Mike’s website, where I learned that his MF-2B was also based upon the old King 26, but incorporated a less wide, more Bach 18, type of rim. The MF-2B seemed to have the potential of being exactly what I had been looking for
Well, the MF-2B arrived last week. And after a week of using it, all I can say is, I WISH THIS MOUTHPIECE HAD BEEN SHIPPED WITH MY KING 1241 37 YEARS AGO! (Maybe I would not have taken a 27 year break from playing the tuba.
) What a match. It has all of the great attributes of my original King 26, and then some, but with a rim that I find much more manageable and to my liking. Of course, my sound is my sound. It doesn't change much by mouthpiece. (We need to stay real here. No mouthpiece is going to make me, or anyone, a “better” player.) However, I honestly feel that this MF2-B mouthpiece makes it easier, or more natural, for me to maximize the quality of my playing on this instrument. I don’t think you can realistically ask much more of a mouthpiece than that. By the way, an interesting aside, during my communications with Mike I found out that he was actually playing a King tuba when he started designing his mouthpieces. The net of all of this? If you play a king 1241, or I would assume, an old, or new, style King 2341 (same bore sizes, valve cluster package, fundamental design philosophies as the 1241), and if you are in the market for a good all around mpc, I would strongly suggest you consider giving either the MF-1 or the MF-2B a try. Finally, Mike was great to work with - very friendly, accommodating and professional.
