Some advice on this Jean-Baptiste mouthpiece listing?

[Sous-Chef-Phone]

Dear TubeNet,

I’ve been looking for a generic, inexpensive tuba mouthpiece for purposes of buzzing practice, and I’ve had my eye on this for a while:
http://www.samash.com/jean-baptiste-mp1 ... -jbmp18cxx
Can anyone tell me if it would be a decent mouthpiece for this purpose? It seems like it’s designed to be a lower-expense copy of a Bach 18C tuba mouthpiece:
http://www.amazon.com/Bach-Tuba-Mouthpi ... B0002E2CFK

To address your likely reaction, I DO understand that cheaper is rarely better in this department. However, my circumstances are a little unique, and so my goals are significantly different from a typical student tuba player.

Specifically, I’ve had some lung-related medical troubles in the past (spontaneous pneumothoraxes), and the doctor’s only concern regarding my interest in tuba is the backpressure generated from forcing air through the instrument’s bulk tubing (rather than the mouthpiece, which he considered to be better than those of narrower, higher-pressure instruments).

Because of this, I’m really not intending to use the mouthpiece for an actual horn so much as for 1) the fun of buzzing tunes on a mouthpiece, 2) the nostalgia from when I was learning to play some songs on a real sousaphone (last summer), and 3) the respiratory health benefits I experienced in terms of lower chest constriction.

Given these circumstances, I’m mainly trying to optimize 1) price and 2) closeness to a typical student BBb tuba/sousaphone mouthpiece, rather than factors like 3) brand name or 4) tone quality that a professional would care more about. The fact that this mouthpiece is on Amazon is also convenient. I’ve been thinking about this purchase for a while, but I thought it would be an excellent idea to ask some experts to make sure I’m not making a terrible mistake.

Finally, I feel somewhat guilty for posting here, since I’m hardly qualified to be conversing with professional tubists (my entire tuba experience boils down to twenty hours on a sousaphone over summer 2014 and about four lessons in high school ), so I’d like to thank you in advance for your time.

Thanks,
-Sous-Chef-Phone

P.S.: For the interested, there have been some discussions of pneumothorax problems in the past. For instance:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15447&hilit=pneumothorax
and Mitch’s post in
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=30162&p=263627&hili ... ax#p263627

[cjk]

You can buy a Lexan Kelly 18 for $34. They're made in the USA and not crap.
http://www.kellymouthpieces.com/kmtuba/index.asp" target="_blank

[ArnoldGottlieb]

These are my favorite Buzzing and cold weather mouthpieces. http://kellymouthpieces.com/kmtuba/index.asp" target="_blank
They are really lightweight, and they go through airport security every monday.
Just my opinion.
Peace
ASG

[michael_glenn]

I'll agree. The Kelly ones are nice. Just get the helleberg one, and keep it in the glovebox of your car. It will be comfortable to play at 100 degrees, or 0.

[Guest User]

Get a Kelly 18 or a Kellyburg. Alternatively, get a Blessing 18, which is a better Bach 18 than a Bach 18. Seriously.

This one is $32 (which is only two dollars more than that Chinese thing that may or may not fit a horn), and if you have Prime you get free two-day shipping.

http://www.amazon.com/Kelly-TU25CG-Plas ... mouthpiece

[Sous-Chef-Phone]

Dear Everyone,

Wow, the responses really took a different turn than I expected! These Kelly mouthpieces really look perfect.

I might have to think about how I want to approach it, since I prefer not to use credit cards online, but $4 more is totally reasonable, especially if "Jean Baptiste" is actually from a super sketchy foreign company Jinbao, as Bloke says. I knew it was odd that they didn't provide more details on the Sam Ash website!

Michael_glenn's response makes me think of a follow-up question. I see that the Kelly mouthpieces are all the same price regardless of make, so....

...Now, I've read enough posts on this site to know the dangers of lobbing out an incendiary question like "which do you prefer, Helleberg or Bach 18 / 24AW / 25?"...So maybe I'll phrase it like this: do any of these mouthpieces have specific qualities that lend themselves particularly well to a very beginner tubist, especially one with airflow pressure considerations? (I notice that the Kellyberg has the largest rim, while the 24AW has the largest throat. It seems as though 18's may be more "standard" though.)

Thanks!
-Sous-Chef-Phone

[Sous-Chef-Phone]

Update: sorry Guest User, didn't see your reply right away. Thank you for showing me they're on Amazon! This makes things much simpler! Since most of the four different makes seem to be offered, I'd still like to hear a bit about what I'd be picking between, but this was already really helpful and I hope you all know how grateful I am.

[Sous-Chef-Phone]

Sorry, never mind about the mouthpiece make follow-up question; there's already been lots of discussion about it and I just needed to do some digging. Because the 25/24AW are pretty small, I think it would be a toss-up between an 18 and a Helleberg. I'll tell you what I ultimately decide on.

In any case, I really want to thank you so much for your advice. I know it's awkward having a newbie posting advice questions, and I'll try to stay out of everyone's hair in the future. Thank you for taking the time to help! I can't communicate how appreciative I am.

[Guest User]

I like both the Kellyburg and the Kelly 18 for different reasons. Both are quite comfortable and play well on my horns. On my big horn I prefer the 18, which, for me, plays much better than a "real" 18. I have read here that it is actually more of a copy of a Tilz mouthpiece than the Bach. I don't know about that. I *do* know that Kelly tweaks the designs to try and make the plastic perform as well as metal. I like whatever he did to the 18 and wish I could get it in stainless.

These are cheap enough that you could easily afford to screw around with all of them if you limit yourself to buying one ever couple of months. Between now and Christmas you could have three different ones to buzz on, giving yourself lots of feedback and information using mouthpieces that you can actually use on a tuba to decent effect.

I will never play a plastic Kelly as my main piece on any given tuba, but I will always have one in my glove box for warming up on the way to a rehearsal or performance.

[Sous-Chef-Phone]

Thanks, Guest User! I was already gravitating towards the Kelly 18 because it's more available and less expensive on Amazon ($32 vs $45 for gold sparkly Kellyberg), so I think I've made up my mind. And you're right, I can always buy the Kellyberg later.

Thank you all for your help! Keep calm and play on!

[iiipopes]

You can buy a Lexan Kelly 18 for $34. They're made in the USA and not crap.
http://www.kellymouthpieces.com/kmtuba/index.asp" target="_blank" target="_blank

Indeed. I have two of them.

[Biggs]

I have the Kellyberg for a purpose virtually identical to the one you describe and highly recommend it. In addition to the benefits already described, Kelly mouthpieces are light and do not (in my experience, anyway) attract attention of TSA folks when you travel with them.

edit: someone *did* beat me to the punch on the airport thing!

[Sous-Chef-Phone]

I just wanted to post a final update on the topic and thank everyone for their advice. I wound up buying that Kelly 18 for $32 with free shipping on Amazon, and it's great!

The sale happened to be for crystal orange only, which is actually wonderful because that's one of my school's colors. It couldn't be a more perfect memento from my time learning all the school anthems on sousaphone and dreaming of being in the band. Because of my medical history, I don't know yet what role, if any, tuba can play in my future, but at least I have a practice mouthpiece of my very own again and I couldn't be happier.

Thanks, TubeNet!
-Sous-Chef-Phone

[Guest User]

Enjoy!

[Sous-Chef-Phone]

Thanks! Also, really funny story, "russiantuba"!