Mouthpiece for York Monster EEb

[Doug Elliott]

I have an identical York Monster Eb that I also found in a pawn shop. Like mine, yours is High Pitch - the tuning slide is too short to be anywhere near A440, it's 1/4 step sharp even pulled out all the way. The Low Pitch slide would extend down to the bottom bow. For it to be usable I had Joel Bristor make an extension for that main tuning slide. After that, a valve job, a new leadpipe, and fixing a lot of loose joints and braces, it plays quite nicely in tune. Mine now has an American size receiver and seems to be tolerant of a wide variety of mouthpieces.

I can make shanks for my mouthpieces that fit the old small receiver that yours has, but it may need a lot of other work and you might just replace your receiver or the whole leadpipe.

[Sam Gnagey]

Any of the Denis Wick number only series will fit. The receiver is pretty identical to the large shank trombone mouthpiece. I'd probably go with a Wick 3 or 4.

[opus37]

I have a Martin that is similar to yours. It came with both a low and high pitch slides. I had Lee Stofer adjust the slide lengths to allow me to play 440. It is now very well in tune. He also redid the valves.

As for the mouthpiece, I did try the Wick 3. I found it to work rather well. It does have a deep cup shape. I found it has a rather small rim. You my want a 1 or 2 rather than the 3. The 4 was way too small. I have since modified the receiver to handle American shank mouthpieces. I have found the Sellmansberger Imperial and Symphony work well for me along with a Stofer Geib. If you like the horn, I suggest you get the restorations that have been suggested in this and other posts. Plan on spending more than the horn will ever be worth.

[PaulMaybery]

Had one of those for a while. Great little horn - a 3 popper.
Same issue with the HP/LP so I built a longer MTS. That was not a big deal as I had a York Eb LP crooks in the the junk box. But longer ferrules would work as well.

Yes, the smaller shanks on the Wick MPs worked. But I thought it would be more useable to have a standard American shank receiver that would accomodate most MPs. That was an easy fix. I eventually found a York MP to go with it, but did sell the tuba. The mouthpiece is really rather small by modern standards.

Mine had a very mellow sound, but the valves were pretty worn. I often wondered how it would sound after a valve job. Perhaps a bit tighter sound.

Very comfortable ergonomically if you like holding it at nearly a 45 degree angle from the body and sitting in on the right thigh. Since it was pretty light that was no problem.

[Doug Elliott]

Very comfortable ergonomically if you like holding it at nearly a 45 degree angle from the body and sitting in on the right thigh. Since it was pretty light that was no problem.

I was wondering about that angle myself. It's OK but feels a bit strange.