Posted by Urbie Watrous on December 27, 2000 at 17:16:46:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Mpiece Beat: Benge 18 = which Helleberg? posted by Lew on December 27, 2000 at 14:41:26:
Thanks (to y'all) for the input. I'll ask my teacher what he thinks of the Wick 2 as an alternative to the HB's. I am aware of the shank issue -- when I got the horn, the dealer had to grind down the shank on the Benge 18 to make it fit the smaller receiver. I didn't know from tuba mouthpieces at the time (that was about 18 years ago), so I never gave it much thought, and had just been playing it like that ever since, until I took a few tuba lessons this year and my teacher suggested trying the Helleberg. I asked my local repair-person about swapping the receiver out for an American shank -- she said it's not a big deal to do that, but suggested that since I'm a one-tuba guy, I might as well just get a mouthpiece with the European shank (if I had several horns and wanted to use the same mouthpiece on more than one of them, it would make sense to change the receiver, she reasoned, but probably not if this is going to be my only tuba).
Anyhow, I'll see what my teacher has to say about the Wick, and otherwise, maybe try both Hellebergs to see which seems to work better for me (I have a feeling it'd probably be the shallower one, since I'm not a purebred tuba player, but it might be worth trying both).
Urb