WTB: Wick 4 mouthpiece

[greenbean]

Looking for a Wick 4 (no L) mouthpiece in silver plate. I need a small European shank.

[2nd tenor]

I suggest that you try eBay U.K. and ask potential sellers if they will post to the USA (postage might be a little pricey).

The 4’s aren’t common (well I see very few) but 3’s and 5’s turn up quite often. I have both of those sizes, they both have advantages but for me and my playing I’d say that the 3’s a really nice match to a 4 valve Eb Tuba and has the edge on a Wick 4. YMMV. The Wick 3 is a similar cup size to the standard piece (BB66D4) supplied with your Yamaha.
https://uk.yamaha.com/en/products/music ... oduct-tabs
https://www.yamaha.com.sg/eshop/en/yamaha/BB66D4
https://www.deniswick.com/wp-content/up ... -Chart.pdf

At one point I played a Besson New Standard 4 valve compensating Eb, IIRC if was supplied with a ‘Kosikup’ brand mouthpiece, and the mouthpiece wasn’t very big at all. IIRC that mouthpiece was marked Eb and I suspect that the U.K. tradition was to play with much smaller mouth pieces than is the norm today.

When I joined my current Band I was given a B&H Imperial EEb complete with Bass Trombone mouthpiece ... it was obviously the wrong piece but it still played. I replaced the mouthpiece (2nd hand item and gifted to the band) with something like a Wick 3 but a 5 would also have worked if less well for low register notes requiring use of the 4th valve. I try to use the same size mouthpiece for whatever Tuba I’m playing, a Wick 3 seems to do the lot for me.

Edit. I met up with a friend this morning and the Imperial above is using a Kosikup mouthpiece marked BBb which I believe I supplied together with a second piece which wasn’t brought to rehearsal. My friend plays any and every instrument and is happy with the Kosikup, I’ll try to remember and try to measure it next time we meet-up.

[greenbean]

Thanks for this info, Tenor. It is helpful and interesting.

The horn in question is a Besson New Standard comp 4v with 15" bell. I have been using a Wick 3 and it plays very well. What I am not crazy about is the "organ-like tone," per Wick literature. It seems overly dark. The rim is also wider than what I usually play. The only other candidate I have is a contrabass trombone mpc is too small but still works surprisingly well.

Perhaps I should just stick with the 3 for a while and focus on practicing. I am really liking Eb and am finding that the fingerings are easier to learn than I had expected. It is not automatic yet but I am definitely moving in that direction. It is very encouraging. And the 3+1 set-up? I think it makes more sense ergonomically than 4 inline. Passages that are tricky on an inline 4 are a breeze on the 3+1. Nice.

[2nd tenor]

Getting hold of small shank tuba mouthpieces isn’t too difficult but it’s a limited market so sometimes one struggles and other times one doesn’t.

If the Wick 3 is too Organ like then the slightly smaller 5 might be just right, I find that the 5 gives a slightly better upper range but looses a tiny bit of the (organ like) richness that the 3 gives. It could be the ‘Goldilocks’ cup you are looking for and the outside diameter is slightly smaller too.

Some years back (maybe seven), just after returning to Tuba (from Trombone), I tried-out a Yamaha Doug Yeo (28.7mm cup) on a small Eb and really liked it: it was much easier (than a ‘proper’ Tuba mouthpiece) for my then weak chops to control and it both sounded really good and was the best sounding of the several that I tried out. The owner of the mouthpiece wouldn’t part with it and the new price was too steep for me, but otherwise I’d have more than happily used it. I also tried out a Bach 1G (28mm cup) and that worked fine. IIRC I settled on a second hand Wick 5 and later moved on - via a variety of other pieces - to a Wick 3 as my chops developed.

Bass Trombone sized mouthpieces seem to be just within the adequate size range for an Eb, well that’s been my experience but as a Brass Band player I don’t get called upon to use the fourth value’s low range much. I suppose one shouldn’t be too surprised at the effectiveness of such smaller cups when used on Eb Tubas because (via their ‘trigger’ sections) the low range of a Bass Trombone overlaps much of the range of an Eb Tuba and a Bass Trombone would use a Bach 1G - and usually something a bit smaller than that.

TLDR: Some relatively small cup mouthpieces work on older small receiver Eb’s; if one’s handy then try a (Tuba) Wick 5.

https://www.deniswick.com/wp-content/up ... -Chart.pdf
https://www.bachbrass.com/application/f ... 89_web.pdf
https://www.yamahamusiclondon.com/BL-YE ... dBMPBLYEOS

Edit. If a classic mouthpiece for a BBb is 32mm (DW No2) and a classic mouthpiece for a Euphonium is 26mm (DW 4AM) then something around Wick’s No 5 at 30mm must surely be well in the right ‘Ball Park’ ... just saying though I’ll be sticking with a Wick 3 myself.

[Vegasbound]

I use a 4 with my small bell imperial, there are a couple on eBay uk currently without the L

The other option is change the receiver to take a large shank, personally not a fan of that option.

[bloke]

If you have a mouthpiece guy - who's nice with their pricing - I have some JP (John Packer) Wick 4 knock-offs (feature new-style Wick-looking exterior) which are LOW PRICED enough (VERY low-priced) to have someone (again: assuming low-ish pricing for this service) turn one of them down to small-tuba/bass-trombone/English-tuba shank.

The cheapest postage (added to the cheap price) might be around $5.XX (??)
I'd be willing to carry it to the post office, so as to have a tracking number on it.

[greenbean]

I found one. And it plays beautifully!