Posted by Eric on January 28, 2002 at 18:44:33:
Somebody (please) tell me that this is my imagination. My favorite mouthpiece for my horn (King silver sousaphone) has been a Bach 24AW. So I just recently bought a (used) gold-finish Bach 24AW and tried it on my horn. The first thing I noticed was that the "stem" is about a quarter-inch shorter. Then after more inspection, I realized that the gold mouthpiece has a smaller (or maybe no) backbore.
Back-to-back comparison seems to me as if the smaller backbore plays and sounds different from the larger. Actually, it seems as if the bigger backbore plays more easily. Needless to say, I'm pretty disappointed, so will someone tell me, are my observations correct? i.e., does the backbore and stem make a huge difference?