Posted by Todd on May 10, 2001 at 18:27:33:
Well, I think I made a discovery by accident. I own a Meinl Weston 2165 that has always sounded great to me. My only problem was that it felt as nimble as an elephant doing ballet. An hour ago I took my tuba out of the gig bag and popped in the first mouthpiece I saw. The mouthpiece was my Schilke 67 which I had modified 2 years ago. (I openned the throat a good bit). I noticed that my sound had IMMEDIATELY focused and I had some wonderful overtones that were never there before. Ya see, I have been using a VERY large Dillon G3B on my LARGE horn. I remember reading that typically smaller mouthpieces work best on larger tubas. Well, today I discovered that, that is true. My horn isn't as boomy as it once was and I can articulate like crazy. I think the enlarged throat helps with the way that I use my air.
Another thing I noticed is that this mouthpiece goes almost all the way into the receiver where as the G3B was a good 3/4-1" further out. Can someone like Matt Walters elaborate on how this distance (or "gap" as in the Dillon AGR)would affect sound and articulation? Would the gap make a difference?
Thanks! :)
Todd "I have seen the light and it is pretty" Morgan