Rare Tuba Mouthpieces

[Rick Denney]

Fred Young's mouthpieces are rare and interesting, but not because I'd want to routinely play one.

But I can't think of a single "rare" mouthpiece I've played that isn't matched or bettered by something currently available, if one just wants something to play.

Rick "avoided the never-ending mouthpiece search but still ended up with a couple of dozen of them" Denney

[BRS]

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[York-aholic]

Modern uncommon: tuba mouthpieces made by the Atkinson French Horn maker in Burbank, CA.

If anyone has one, I’d be interested in it as I’m an Atkinson too, but not related.

If I remember correctly, Mark made some that were similar to the Schilke Helleberg II or Laskey 30H for a while.

Yes, the one I have is “his” Helleberg II. I was curious if there were any other models they made. Thanks.

[BRS]

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[Mikelynch]

FWIW—I wouldn’t consider the Conn Geibs to be terribly rare, as I have seen at least 35-40 over the years; and can still account for the location of 12, not counting the ones mentioned in this thread.

The rare Geib mouthpiece from my experience is the one he sold himself which was meant to be played with sets of sleeves or “straws” which defined the throat and backbore. I have only found one, which I got when I bought one of Fred’s personal horns. I will post some literature on them later. As an aside, I believe Bob Tucci sells sets of sleeves configured to fir into PT mouthpieces (and I assume RTs also), but for different purposes than in Geibs own.

I’ll put in another vote for the King Ross. With the one mentioned in this thread I only personally know of 4. The mouthpieces are beautifully machined, and are the only adjustable cup mouthpieces I have seen with scales so any position may be precisely replicated later. I have read that there is a trombone King Ross also, but I have not found any further information on them.

More to come…

[brianf]

I have been using Mr. Jacobs' adjustable cup mouthpiece for years. Great for Brahms #2 - you find the sweet spot for the sound you are looking for, that's what Mr. Jacobs did. He even used this with the York for Midsummer Night's Dream! This should be duplicated.

[donn]

Side note -- someone around here had Jim New do a run of the Conn...1 or 2??... So I'm sure he still has the plans for it.

Conn 1 = James New C1, copied from a mouthpiece from the original Conn Precision line. Turned out well, it's still my favorite on contrabass. He made 4 and I sold off the three I didn't need at more or less cost - mostly if I remember right to people who said they wanted to use them with Eb bass tubas. I love the mouthpiece and I have a reasonably big Eb tuba, but I'm not sure it's the best match, so ... there may be a couple of C1s that could be pried loose from their owners.

Now the Conn 3, that would be a bass tuba mouthpiece, and in its way also somewhat unusual. I wouldn't say it's rare, but it isn't super common, nor are there a lot of other commonly available shallow funnel shape cups. If he were up for making all kinds of tuba mouthpieces, I'd probably have gone ahead and asked for Conn 3s, but I felt kind of lucky he took this one on.

[LeMark]

I have a Conn 4 with a British shank, does that qualify as rare?

[donn]

I have a Conn 4 with a British shank, does that qualify as rare?

I'd say. What would you say its intended use might be? I mean, is it clearly a tuba mouthpiece?

[LeMark]

Old and small E flat tubas had British shanks so I'm sure that's what it was intended for

[Kingconn]

My favorite vintage mouthpiece is a Conn 1. It's about the same diameter as the later larger helleberg but way deeper.

[TheBerlinerTuba]

Great thread idea, thank you!

First mouthpiece was likely made by Johann Gottfried Moritz around 1836 for his newly invented Chromatic Baßtuba. Basically one of the very first tuba mouthpieces.

Second mouthpiece is a copy of a Giddings Jon Sass but in brass. It was one of two made to test the qualities of brass against stainless steel.

[bisontuba]

Above: The earliest known marked American Tuba mouthpiece…German Silver…’Allen, Boston’
J.Lathrop Allen, Boston, MA, c. 1861…
…from my THE EARLY AMERICAN TUBA presentation…

[Kingconn]

I've got an early CONN that simply has BBb on the shank. It seems to be about the same size as the original Helleberg.

[bisontuba]

There is also a Conn Webster tuba mouthpiece, which is quite a rare bird….

[UncleBeer]

These are the two mouthpieces which came with my 1931 Couesnon C French tuba. The one on the left has a double cup (one taper in the bottom, and a distinctly wider taper near the rim), and the one on the right has an interesting star shaped throat.

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jpeg-optimizer_IMG_20240310_093208309-EDIT.jpg (171.85 KiB) Viewed 1756 times