Originally Posted by
opus37
Pan Am was a name plate of a tuba made by Conn. This is a 1928 version. It could be a small tuba, but at that time frame and being a Conn, it likely is a bit larger than the older models. With that said, we just don't know based on the information we have so far. Vintage, ok, antique instruments, do not have todays technology and tend to have some intonation issues. There are gems and klunkers in any horn brand, even today. Miss placement of bracing, incomplete soldering of joints, the fit of tuning slides, the design of the horn, the metal used and the mindset of the assembler at the time, all can affect the quality of the horn. Gary Merrilll's experience with shortening slides emphasizes the point that, unless you know what you are doing and are careful, you can mess up a horn. If you don't know what your doing, find someone who does. There are no guarantees that you will end up with a playable let alone a good playable horn. (Odds are it will be fine.) As for the mouthpiece, I have several antique mouthpieces. They all tend to be very much like a present day trombone mouthpiece in size and shape. By todays standards, a Denis Wick 3 is not a large mouthpiece. A mouthpiece can affect the sound of a tuba, sometimes quite dramatically. The player, the horn, the music style and the venue can be factors in which mouthpiece works best for you. In this case, the original inquiry was where to get a mouthpiece that fits. Well, Denis Wick has them. Choose a 3, 4, or 5 depending on what you think is best. As you go toward a smaller shallower mouthpiece the sound tends to get brighter. A bass trombone mouthpiece may work too. The sound of tubas, and trombones and euphoniums, have changed over time. Just look at the size of the bells and bores as they changed over time. All have grown larger. Thus a larger mouthpiece will be more typical to a tuba sound today. There really isn't a wrong choice. We all hope this discussion helps you with your horn.