Originally Posted by
sirendude2015
Classic Eb tubas from the era used quite small mouthpieces. I have a Conn "S" mouthpiece that was probably the standard shipment for their earlier Eb's, possibly their Monster models as well. As far as measurement goes, it is very comparable to mouthpieces made specifically for cimbasso and contrabass trombone. In fact it is only slightly larger than a Denis Wick 00AL.
In the tuba world it appears to be a matter of dogma that these instruments were provided with (and hence need to be used with) smaller and shallower mouthpieces than we typically use today. Unfortunately, it's close to impossible to get any details either illustrating such mouthpieces or supporting these claims. I've tried pretty much every modern mouthpiece available on my Buescher (primarily bass and contra-bass trombone mouthpieces) and found them very wanting in terms of tone and/or intonation. So I'm very curious about this Conn S mouthpiece.
Most often, what's referred to with respect to Conns of the era (and hence by extension to Buescher as well) is the Conn #2. The only S I've seen referenced is the 120S which is a large Helleberg mouthpiece. It also seems to be generally conceded that the legendary #2 (through several incarnations over the years) is very close to the 7B (regarded as a small version of the 120S). So with that as background ...
Do you have dimensions on this Conn S mouthpiece (diameter, rim width, cup depth and shape?? Is it actually marked 'S'? What's the shank size? And how did you come by it?
Also, how would you characterize the tone you get from one of these vintage tubas with this mouthpiece? My experience was that when I went in the "bass trombone direction" I could get pretty good intonation, but it didn't sound like a tuba -- it sounded like a tuba being played with a trombone mouthpiece (lost a lot of the "conical bore" sound quality).
Eventually, I settled on a Wick 4 (NOT the 4L) which was pretty good but not great. Then I sanded down the shank on a Kelly 25, and that worked well too, but not great. Finally, I managed to snag one of the (probably the last) Dillon shank adapters made for these instruments and since then have been using my Miraphone TU17 mouthpiece. Of all the things I tried, this seems to be the best in terms of tone, pitch, and intonation. A TU7 or a TU3 (both shallower) might be better, but Miraphone mouthpieces are expensive, and I got tired of extensive mouthpiece experimentation for a horn I rarely play. Note that they're also not an option for use in the original small receivers of these instruments. I guess that if I had a really good horn of this type/vintage and really wanted to play it a lot, I'd throw money at Doug Elliott to get a "correct" mouthpiece for it.
So I'm very curious about this S mouthpiece.
Gary Merrill
Wessex EEb Bass tuba (DW 3XL or 2XL)
Mack Brass Compensating Euph (DE N106, Euph J, J9 euph)
Amati Oval Euph (DE 104, Euph J, J6 euph)
1924 Buescher 3-valve Eb tuba (with std US receiver), Kelly 25
Schiller American Heritage 7B clone bass trombone (DE LB K/K10/112/14 Lexan, Brass Ark MV50R)
1947 Olds "Standard" trombone (Olds #3)