Mouthpiece Personalization

[bbuxx2026]

I recently had an audition and got my scores back in which i improved over 50 points not sure if it’s my new mouthpiece or i’ve just gotten better. I love the way i sound on my Denis Wick 2XL heritage, my teacher and fellow bandmates both agree my sound is better than before. here’s my problem it’s not very comfortable to play it feels off and not meant for my face, i love the size of the cup and the actual mouthpiece diameter (32mm) but i feel the rim contour doesn’t blend with my face well. i have a smaller face i’ve previously played a 7b since 4th grade until 8th where i tired a Conn 120, Miraphone Tu27 which were too big Schilke helleberg which i used until it got lost at a festival late last year which is where the Dw comes in it’s been great just uncomfortable. i’ve been looking for a new mouthpiece for solo work and occasional band playing, i’ve been looking toward a Roger Bobo solo for the shallow cup and slightly bigger rim. if you have a recommendations please let me know
TlDR Mouthpiece works great just uncomfortable to play looking for recommendations for new mouthpieces like the Dw 2xl

[BramJ]

You can use VennCAD (a free software tool) to compare mouthpieces. It has some mouthpieces available you can use a reference
in this image I added the Denis Wick 2L (I believe the rim is the only difference with the XL) in green, the Conn Helleberg 7B in red and the Roger Bobo Solo in blue

You can also use the software to change the designs and export a file to 3D print or have Vennture (the company behind the software) make it in brass for you, not cheap for an 'experiment'

[gocsick]

There is a good site for trumpet mouthpieces that databases and displays the Venncad mouthpiece profiles. The Trumpet Mouthpiece Comparator operated by the trumpet cloud project. It would be nice for someone to do the same for low brass.

About the trumpet.cloud project & Terms of Use

Thank you for your interest in the Trumpet Mouthpiece Comparator! The goal of the trumpet.cloud project is to provide limited, high-level information to the trumpet-playing community for noncommercial discussion, educational, or research purposes only. This project has no commercial affiliation with any manufacturer, and the site admins do not possess the technical capabilities to manufacture any of the listed mouthpieces. This project relies upon donations by trumpet players like you, and none of the items presented on the site are commercially available for sale by us.

https://trumpet.cloud/mpc/

[donn]

I looked through the user manual (nice shout out to Marcinkiewicz in there), and it still isn't clear how they actually measure the mouthpiece, which seems to me like kind of a key point. There are a couple references to their "mouthpiece measuring machine", which I assume is not going to show up in your mailbox after downloading the free software. It's hard to get good data by hand. I guess data from some other mouthpiece of the same model is a lot better than nothing, but historically these dimensions aren't reliably consistent - manufacturing errors, minor changes along the way, etc.

[Pauvog1]

If you really want to customize, I bet someone like Jim New, Ivan Giddings, or Dave Houser could probably hook you up with a Wick "under" with a rim of your choice. I'm sure there are others, those are just the names that immediately came to mind.

[donn]

As BramJ pointed out, the 2XL is just a 2L with an uncomfortable rim.

Like the 2L but with a wider rim for added endurance.

(Well, maybe not uncomfortable for everyone, as it may be true that our faces aren't all the same.) Probably no need to roll the dice on an expensive custom job, when a regular 2L has pretty much the same rim found on the average mouthpiece. I'm not absolutely sure though that the rims on the Heritage and Classic lines are identical

[bloke]

As someone who sells mouthpieces, I've been a little bit skeptical - but not completely dismissive - about mouthpiece insertion depth into a receiver. The less the mouthpiece is inserted, the more of a reverse taper (from the receiver itself) is revealed in the very beginning bore of the tuba. I've always thought that - as long as the mouthpiece didn't actually enter the expanding mouthpipe tube - that it was going to play about the same. Well, it does play ABOUT the same but not QUITE the same.
I have a pair of nearly identical mouthpieces here whereby the insertion depth is about 5/32 of an inch or maybe only an eighth of an inch different. The one that exposes more of the reverse taper of the receiver sounds nicer to me (as well as to other people I've asked - without making any comments prior to a/b-ing them).

I don't have anything to sell anyone (that I know of) that's anywhere in the shape range of a Wick mouthpiece, so please just read this comment for what it is, which is a complete sidebar.

I do see an advantage in cups being threaded - at least at the top, so that various rims can be tried with cups that seem to work well with particular tubas, so as the rims can work well with particular players, but that's costly, and also requires that all of one line of mouthpiece's cups end up at the same diameter at the top.

At the risk of trolling, the type of material from which a mouthpiece body is made or how much material/weight is associated with a mouthpiece... I'm still absolutely convinced that makes no difference whatsoever in anything other than adding or taking away from the overall weight of an instrument in someone's carrying case or sitting on someone's legs.
rims...?? sure. Those made of various plastics are more clingy.

curious:
How similar are the Wick cups (my question here only being isolated to the shape of the cup) to Bach 24aw cups? It's an English mouthpiece, and the English are awfully fond of 24aw mouthpieces.

[MiBrassFS]

I have heard a number of times that the Wick 2 is based on the old “E-Z Tone.” FWIW

[bloke]

I have heard a number of times that the Wick 2 is based on the old Conn “E-Z Tone.” FWIW

I wouldn't have any idea.
I did buy one of those one time, because it was cheap, I liked the stair steps exterior art, and it was in good shape. Someone offered me way too much for it - when they saw it sitting on my dresser, so I shrugged my shoulders and sold it.

That EZ tone never made it to my glove box. In other words, I didn't deem it as good enough to be my emergency forgot-my-mouthpiece mouthpiece.

To repeat, I have no idea what's like something else, and - when people ask me that stuff - I don't know anything about any other people's stuff, but that's not one that would be under consideration for me personally.

[donn]

The diagrammatic picture above should help show what the cup is like, relative to a 7B Helleberg.

The thing I don't like about the Denis Wick 2L, is the relatively straight sides in back of the rim. I have had a couple mouthpieces like that, and liked none of them; if I remember right, the Schilke-Helleberg is another. Could be mere coincidence, but that's my story.

[Grumpikins]

I'm going to have to check that venncad software out. I've been doing a lot of mouthpiece measuring and comparison lately. It is really interesting how different designs work with different tubas and different people. I also find the research harrelson trumpets has done very interesting. Very methodical, and scientific approach. On trumpets, he's found that resonance between the player (as in our bodies have resonance) can be matched to resonance of the bell (different materials and shapes) and mouthpiece designs and materials.

As far as hunting for mouthpieces to try, its very frustrating. I've traveled to nearby cities and visited many music stores that said they had mouthpieces in stock to try only to be told in person that "they can order one for me." Um, I can order one myself, probably cheaper. I want to try the mouthpiece before i pay $100-300 for it.