Originally Posted by
davewerden
BUT there is also a match necessary between the human and the mouthpiece!
This is what really puzzled (shocked?) me about the statement that the fit of the mouthpiece to the instrument is the "most" important aspect. Sure, the shank has to fit into the receiver properly. And no, you definitely don't want to be using a contrabass trombone mouthpiece on a euphonium (at least for normal applications ) even if the shank fits. But this sort of "fit the instrument" criterion is what I tend to regard as a kind of "pre-condition" and wouldn't single out as the MOST important issue at all. And I don't think it provides any genuinely helpful guidance. It's a constraining condition concerning where to start with what mouthpieces to even consider. For any individual, a number of mouthpieces that satisfy THAT condition still won't be suitable, or at least certainly won't be "best".
Way too many people (in just my own personal experience with tuba players and bass trombone players) choose a mouthpiece that they feel "fits the instrument" best -- and end up with a mouthpiece that's typically too large for them and inhibits both the quality of their sound and their range. In the bass trombone community now, there in fact seems to be a retreat from what were previously regarded as appropriate mouthpieces for bass trombonists in terms of size (and "fitting the instrument"), but are now -- and I love this -- being referred to as "toilet bowl mouthpieces". So I think that whatever Denis Wick meant, the interpretation of "fit the instrument" needs some serious thought and interpretation since at least on its face it appears to exclude the player from the equation -- or to minimize his or her individual attributes and capabilities.
Last edited by ghmerrill; 12-11-2018 at 12:24 PM.
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)