Posted by Rick Denney on June 06, 2002 at 13:26:49:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Good 3/4 F Tuba for Solos? posted by MA on June 06, 2002 at 12:13:50:
Well, Maryy Anny, you can get a mouthpiece with volume and backbore but a smaller rim. The rim should fit the face, but the cup and backbore should fit the tuba and what you want to do with it.
And it depends on what you call a tuba sound. After playing a 6/4 beast for a few weeks, I'm a little askance at the notion that ANY F tuba sounds like a tuba.
More to the point: F tubas sound like F tubas, or should, especially for the applications that started this thread. Your 182 certainly does. That sound should be between contrabass tubas and euphoniums, but lean in the direction of contrabass tubas because the mouthpiece is more like that used on a contrabass. If you want an F tuba that sound like a contrabass, the 621 ain't it, but then neither is your Meinl-Weston. You can make a euphonium sound like a tuba with a tuba mouthpiece, but it sounds like a really small, stuffy, out-of-tune tuba. I've conducted the experiment with a Besson euphonium and a Wick 1 mouthpiece.
In my own analysis of tuba sound, the Yamaha 621 had nearly identical characteristics to the 4/4 Miraphone BBb tuba when played within itself. As with any tuba, if you push too hard, the sound will lose that depth. I know this all too well.
And, no, I no longer own the PT-64. Actually, it was a PT-9, which lets you know how long ago I had it, and I included it with the sale of my Musica rotary F tuba that the Yamaha replaced.
Rick "responding to liberties being taken with tongue partly in cheek" Denney