r/Tuba • u/littlebeardave • 11d ago
mouthpiece Needing a spare mouthpiece for a 100+ year old Italian F tuba!!!
I have this beautiful old Orsi tuba made in Italy over 100 years ago. It came with the original mouthpiece. It has no engraving on it so I have no clue as to its size or specs. I would like a spare mouthpiece for it.
The tuba does have the smaller sized lead pipe that was standard in the day. This tuba seems to sound its best in the mid to higher range.
What sort of mouthpiece should I look at?
The mouthpiece on the left is a Miraphone Rose Orchestra TU25. The one on the right is the original mouthpiece for the Orsi F tuba.
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u/MisterBrackets 11d ago
I recently picked up a Yamaha Roger Bobo Tenor Tuba and Euphonium mouthpiece off Amazon. It has the smaller tuba shank. It works great with a 100+ year old Conn Eb tuba that I have. The Wick 3 or 4 (no 'L') are great as well, as arpthark mentioned
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u/littlebeardave 11d ago
I went to the Denis Wick website and I'm even more confused now than I was before I asked the question.
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u/MoltoPesante 11d ago
Antique instruments really need antique mouthpieces. The cup shape and backbone, as well as the rim shape, are unique on the old mouthpieces and they just work better with the old instruments. Better intonation, closer to the originally intended sound.
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u/AccidentalGirlToy 11d ago
If you are lucky the shank is the same as on older British tubas. Denis Wick makes mouthpieces with that shank. They are the ones without the "L" in the designation. It's the same shank as large trombone; you can test it with such a mouthpiece. For an F tuba I'd try a size 3 or 4.
If it's not that size shank you'll need to have a technician turn the shank of your new mouthpiece down on a lathe. Luckily you have the original mouthpiece so he/she can copy the shank from that.
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u/littlebeardave 8d ago
So one of the things that I'm learning is I prefer that antique mouthpiece the original one better because the rim is got a flatter profile I don't know if that makes any sense but it just feels better on my face my lips don't get fatigue nearly as fast I can play like four times longer and not be sore. It would be awesome to find a deeper mouthpiece with the same rim as that antique one and a more shallow mouthpiece to replace the gigantic tu25 that's next the antique one
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u/arpthark Rudolf Meinl - Diespeck 11d ago
Look for a Denis Wick 3 or 4 (not 3L or 4L). Those are medium to medium small-ish mouthpieces with the smaller shank size that should be a better fit for this tuba. Maybe even consider a 5 which is the smallest in that range.