Okay, more unsolicited observations for Joe's new mouthpiece. (I hope you don't mind,
@bloke…)
I have spent some time with it on my two BATs.
Yamaha VCB-826
Very good, overall, but this tuba wants a large, open mouthpiece, wide, deep, with a large throat. However, this mouthpiece hurts nothing whatsoever and I could take in to a gig today with no preparation on this tuba because
1. this tuba plays great with anything stuck in the small end, and
2. this mouthpiece works in everything I have tried it with, so far (about eight tubas in all four keys), so
No issues, there, but I will not be using this paring for work.
Holton 345
This tuba benefits from the focus a tighter throat gives, likes smaller mouthpieces, also like bigger ones, but has the weird pitch tendancies of a homemade tuba (Rusk-cut, in this case, and heavily corrected by me) so that moving the tuning slide seems to alter the intonation tendancies — in some cases by an alarming, drastic, not-at-all-in-my-head amount. I have a long list of surmises regarding this and have more or less figured out how to work around this with this tuba so that it has some of the best intonation of a 6/4 tuba I have ever encountered. VERY LITTLE HAS TO BE "DONE" TO IT WHEN YOU PLAY.
Being said, this mouthpiece lights this horn up nicely, AND DOES NOT SEEM TO "F" WITH THE PITCH, other than requiring me to pull out a little bit as compared with the mouthpiece I had been using.
As with the Kurath, I had to move all my slides around as it makes the overtones seem to line up differently, so that it is easier to hear some pitches that were a little nebulous. It drives some pitches up and some down, but once accounted for it seems to be much better and easier to handle, requiring even less work from me to drive at Interstate speeds.
It has this thing (for me with my chops and ears) where it makes out of center notes FAR MORE EASY TO HEAR as such. The Holton tends to make everything sound the same, whether centered well or not. It is very friendly in this regard. Joe's mouthpiece is the opposite for me in this tuba: if you are not centered very well it bives me this timbre whereby I know it is out, fiddle with fingerings or slides, fix it, and move on.
I guess it slots more tightly on this tuba/leadpipe? (Sorry, I am not very good at describing this specific issue.) I am very pleased. After about fifteen rather alarming minutes I fell in love with this combination and WILL be switching the Holton over to this mouthpiece. Now I need a second one for it as this one belongs to my Kurath.
I still have to give it an extended test drive on the Mirafone 186, but that will have to wait until Summer begins.
I am happily surprised. I love his Symphony on the 186, and used my first-batch, prototype, one-piece "Solo" on the Holton for many years. I think he has said that the "OG" is a larger version of the "Solo", and the Holton stoped loving the "Solo" after this most recent leadpipe was installed. I am tickled that this moderately blown up Solo seems to be the ticket for this huge tuba. The original OG was very good, too, but the "OGU" works even better, with more consistent intonation and a very focused low range the "OG" does not quite match on my odd duck Holton. And I have finally.ly become fully adapted to the rim. I like it a lot, especially on the Kurath.
Adios!
), I'm really trying to dig myself out of covid debt from propping up couple of my adult children during that time who don't do particularly well for themselves. If you could help me promote this mouthpiece so that I could sell some more of them, I'd be very grateful. 