Posted by Jay Bertolet on May 28, 2000 at 22:49:22:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Miscellaneous Queries posted by Lawrenec Van Ameyde on May 28, 2000 at 16:06:46:
Well, in my case the horn is the 6/4 Nirschl York Copy I purchased in January and the mouthpiece is made by Scott Laskey, a Laskey 30H. I am now convinced, after my experiences with this tuba, that matching the mouthpiece with the specific tuba you want to use it with can cure many perceived problems with a tuba. In my case, many professionals who specifically played my tuba made comments about how bad the intonation was on the horn. But using the mouthpiece I've found has left me with a tuba that has almost no intonation problems. So radical was the change that I've had several players try it out for themselves to see if what I'm experiencing is the same as what they perceive.
As to how you find the right mouthpiece for your tuba, I really can't give much advice on how to do that. I only ran into the Laskey mouthpiece by pure chance. The fact that this mouthpiece was made specifically for the Chicago York, the horn that my tuba is a copy of, and that the design was arrived at through years of trial and error using the Chicago York in concert situations makes my case a little easier than most. But it proves that such research does yield tangible results and it gives me confidence that the procedure could be duplicated for other horns. I guess my only hope at this point is that it will be financially rewarding enough that either the instrument manufacturers or the mouthpiece manufacturers will take on the project. Otherwise, it could mean alot of experimentation by players who will end up having many drawers full of unused mouthpieces! But the first step I would take is to find out what professional players are using that play on the same horn as you do. Be sure to ask them why they use that particular mouthpiece, as in how they arrived at that decision. Also, I would check with mouthpiece manufacturers and see if they have ever made a mouthpiece specifically designed for a given horn. Without knowing for sure, I imagine that Doug Elliot might have some experience with this since he claims to tailor make a mouthpiece for a player based on the combination of several different parts. Doug may have seen some patterns in this type of procedure in his own business. Also speaking with Scott Laskey would be advisable, at least he's done this once successfully.
Good hunting!