Ramblings of a Bb Bass player
14/03/25 14:26
First thoughts on the Bb Tuba and the mouthpiece relationship
I’m now in my sixth decade of being involved with the Tuba…
Mind Blown!!
I’ve always been an experimenter. Maybe I’d have been a better exponent if I’d stuck with one thing! Maybe not. Who Knows? In my early teens I soon found home, on Bb Bass in the brass band. I also pretty quickly figured out Bass Clef as school had a wind band too. Nobody told me what I couldn’t do. At 17 I passed ABRSM Grade 8 Tuba (syllabus written for Eb Tuba) on Bb Tuba, with my teacher only turning up once a month! I even got a distinction!! I was “instrumental” in bringing rotary valved tubas into top flight Brass Bands. They became so popular that B&H, who owned the National contest banned them. Never mind the rules, at the time still said G trombone and B&H made a Bb/F/D… May bat, my rules. But I digress… Over the decades I’ve played all four pitches of tuba: Bb, Eb, F, and C. All have their merits, all have their limits. But I still come “Home” To Bb. But I try not to allow preconceptions to limit my thinking. In brass bands, the concept of “Top C” implies a limit. Why? Over the years I have preferred, in what ever I’m doing, the feel and sound of a Contrabass Tuba. Especially Bb. In the 80s, whilst working in South Africa as a full time Tuba player, I discovered one of our Horn Players, the late, great Tom Greer, did his own repairs! Mind blown again. Limited thinking by my educational indoctrination meant that I’d never considered I could actually “do it myself”. Metalwork was my second-best subject at school. But because I’d not gone into engineering I’d not given it a second thought. So, I bought a lathe and a buffing machine… By the time I left South Africa, in 1994, I’d already spent time as a full-time repairer! I came back to the UK with a fantastic BBb Holton Tuba. Built in 1943, when Holton were supposed to have only making Munitions, I restored it and converted it from 3v. top action to 4valve front piston action. With a prototype valve set from Walter Nirschl. One of 2 large piston sets he made at the time. The other went to Hirsbrunner. This was before Walter designed and built his York copy CC. It’s a tank of an instrument! 28lb. and not even got a 5th valve…yet. But, as I was always looking for something better, and by 1994, being back in the UK. I was setting up as a freelance player and peer pressure dictated I should have a CC. So I sold it… One of THE biggest regrets of my playing career. I sold it to Mr. Stephen Wick, a great freelance Tuba player in London and ow chairman of Denis Wick products. One of the worlds biggest mouthpiece and mute makers and still a privately-owned company in this day of corporate instrument making. No mean feat! From 1994 when I sold it, I regretted it, di I mention that... As years went on I remembered the instrument and the potential it had and what I’d still wanted to do to it. At the time I’d made a mandrel for a leadpipe that worked well, was in tune, but had closed up the glorious Holton sound. I always thought it could be more. Well, skip forward to 2024. I’m now making a full time living from designing and building brass instruments. I customise tubas for people, and life is pretty good. In August, I get a message from a colleague: “Mike Steve’s thinking of selling your Holton!” I thought he’d already sold it a couple of years previously, but no! At the time I was on my summer break in Eastern Europe. So, I messaged Steve, and started negotiations… Mid October of 2024, I drove down to Poole in Dorset,
To the Denis Wick factory and met up with Steve to retrieve my baby! It was like family coming home! Finding a long lost relative. When I’d shipped the Tuba back to the UK from South Africa I’d built a case for it. And Maybe I’d over engineered it a little… just a tad… The case, empty weighs in at 65lb.! A mere 30kg. around 95lb/44kg. with the instrument in it! Today, the case is still in perfect condition. I think that’s down to the fact that no one could lift it… After seven years, since 2018, of doing very little playing, I started again in October of 2024. Just for me, because I missed making “That sound”. I go into the workshop and do an hour to an hour and a half every day I’m in. And things are coming back. But it’s for me, not public consumption. I’ve always thought a mouthpiece is the “adapter” between player and instrument. It can make life easy or it can make it difficult. But the same mouthpiece won’t make two players sound the same. It can’t. Different resonances built into the players physical make up dictate more. The same equipment doesn’t do that. So when I started blowing again I started with what I had available from before I’d stopped. When I stopped I’d just got hold of a new design from Laskey mouthpieces the 32H. This was added to the 30H I’d used for years on C tuba. Scott had designed the 32H for Gene Pokorny of the Chicago Symphony to use on the Bb tuba he’d started using for somethings in the CSO. An American playing a Bb! Who’d have thunk! I had a Cerveny 6/4 Bb. The CBB693 with a rose brass bell. A great tuba in the Bohemian tradition and well worth a look. The best rotary Bb I’d owned, and that included Melton and Rudi Meinl. Many players who haven’t spent time on a Bb, especially a big Bb call them for not having any clarity in the articulation. The term “Bubble B” was coined by the late, great John Fletcher, but at the time I think there was very little else in the UK but a B&H Bb and a Kosicup or 24AW mouthpiece. My current experience is that the “bubble” in the articulation is more to do with the adapter than the instrument. Hence Gene going for a bigger cup diameter on Bb.
Back to the Laskey… A few years ago Scott Laskey passed away. And with that Laskey mouthpieces stopped being produced. A massive loss to Tuba players. But the Eastman happened. Eastman winds stepped in and bought Laskey Mouthpieces from Scott’s widow. They are now produced by Bacun Musical Services in Canada. Bacun have taken many of Scott’s hand made mouthpieces and standardised them into a CNC produced range that is consistent within microns of each other. And this is where it gets exciting for an “mature” Bb player like myself. They have taken the 32H that Scott had produced for Gene, and expanded the 32* to all their cup designs! I’d had a 32H, but It was a bit too bright on the Cerveny so I’d bored the back bore out. This was fantastic on the Cerveny, but now I’ve got the Holton, would it work as well? Back to the Holton development: The over bored 32H worked really well with the 1993 leadpipe but still lacked the Bb velvet I wanted. I made 2 pipes to try on the Holton: MY MJC-02 Bb pipe. I’ve been putting these on B&H BBb tubas, with great feed back from the players, for as few years.
And an MJC-01… I first put the 03 pipe on. OMG, it shook the building! Literally, the amount of fundamental it was producing was unbelievable. But was it the right sound? I wasn’t sure. I left in on for a couple of months and got used to it. But it had developed a couple of intonation quirks, mainly because I’d made it a bit too long to get the tuba up to pitch. So a few weeks ago I put the 01 pipe on. I made it 2” shorter than the 03 pipe. Eurika! The change was dramatic. The pipe had brought the tuning back in line and focus back to the sound without losing too much velvet!
But which mouthpiece? The bored 32H had now become too open. I’d opened the back because it was too bright on the Cerveny, but now, on the Holton, it lacked centre. Entre one of the new designs. The 32G. The G or Geib cup is deeper than the Heleberg cup but keeps a similar throat and back bore. And my sound and response are back. Control and lots of Bb velvet! So, now I’ve taken the plunge, and Mike Johnson Custom are now stocking Laskey mouthpieces. The plan is to soon have a full set of demonstration models that players can come and find what suits them and their playing needs.
*These are my thoughts. If some of it's not 100% accurate, sorry…
Mind Blown!!
I’ve always been an experimenter. Maybe I’d have been a better exponent if I’d stuck with one thing! Maybe not. Who Knows? In my early teens I soon found home, on Bb Bass in the brass band. I also pretty quickly figured out Bass Clef as school had a wind band too. Nobody told me what I couldn’t do. At 17 I passed ABRSM Grade 8 Tuba (syllabus written for Eb Tuba) on Bb Tuba, with my teacher only turning up once a month! I even got a distinction!! I was “instrumental” in bringing rotary valved tubas into top flight Brass Bands. They became so popular that B&H, who owned the National contest banned them. Never mind the rules, at the time still said G trombone and B&H made a Bb/F/D… May bat, my rules. But I digress… Over the decades I’ve played all four pitches of tuba: Bb, Eb, F, and C. All have their merits, all have their limits. But I still come “Home” To Bb. But I try not to allow preconceptions to limit my thinking. In brass bands, the concept of “Top C” implies a limit. Why? Over the years I have preferred, in what ever I’m doing, the feel and sound of a Contrabass Tuba. Especially Bb. In the 80s, whilst working in South Africa as a full time Tuba player, I discovered one of our Horn Players, the late, great Tom Greer, did his own repairs! Mind blown again. Limited thinking by my educational indoctrination meant that I’d never considered I could actually “do it myself”. Metalwork was my second-best subject at school. But because I’d not gone into engineering I’d not given it a second thought. So, I bought a lathe and a buffing machine… By the time I left South Africa, in 1994, I’d already spent time as a full-time repairer! I came back to the UK with a fantastic BBb Holton Tuba. Built in 1943, when Holton were supposed to have only making Munitions, I restored it and converted it from 3v. top action to 4valve front piston action. With a prototype valve set from Walter Nirschl. One of 2 large piston sets he made at the time. The other went to Hirsbrunner. This was before Walter designed and built his York copy CC. It’s a tank of an instrument! 28lb. and not even got a 5th valve…yet. But, as I was always looking for something better, and by 1994, being back in the UK. I was setting up as a freelance player and peer pressure dictated I should have a CC. So I sold it… One of THE biggest regrets of my playing career. I sold it to Mr. Stephen Wick, a great freelance Tuba player in London and ow chairman of Denis Wick products. One of the worlds biggest mouthpiece and mute makers and still a privately-owned company in this day of corporate instrument making. No mean feat! From 1994 when I sold it, I regretted it, di I mention that... As years went on I remembered the instrument and the potential it had and what I’d still wanted to do to it. At the time I’d made a mandrel for a leadpipe that worked well, was in tune, but had closed up the glorious Holton sound. I always thought it could be more. Well, skip forward to 2024. I’m now making a full time living from designing and building brass instruments. I customise tubas for people, and life is pretty good. In August, I get a message from a colleague: “Mike Steve’s thinking of selling your Holton!” I thought he’d already sold it a couple of years previously, but no! At the time I was on my summer break in Eastern Europe. So, I messaged Steve, and started negotiations… Mid October of 2024, I drove down to Poole in Dorset,
To the Denis Wick factory and met up with Steve to retrieve my baby! It was like family coming home! Finding a long lost relative. When I’d shipped the Tuba back to the UK from South Africa I’d built a case for it. And Maybe I’d over engineered it a little… just a tad… The case, empty weighs in at 65lb.! A mere 30kg. around 95lb/44kg. with the instrument in it! Today, the case is still in perfect condition. I think that’s down to the fact that no one could lift it… After seven years, since 2018, of doing very little playing, I started again in October of 2024. Just for me, because I missed making “That sound”. I go into the workshop and do an hour to an hour and a half every day I’m in. And things are coming back. But it’s for me, not public consumption. I’ve always thought a mouthpiece is the “adapter” between player and instrument. It can make life easy or it can make it difficult. But the same mouthpiece won’t make two players sound the same. It can’t. Different resonances built into the players physical make up dictate more. The same equipment doesn’t do that. So when I started blowing again I started with what I had available from before I’d stopped. When I stopped I’d just got hold of a new design from Laskey mouthpieces the 32H. This was added to the 30H I’d used for years on C tuba. Scott had designed the 32H for Gene Pokorny of the Chicago Symphony to use on the Bb tuba he’d started using for somethings in the CSO. An American playing a Bb! Who’d have thunk! I had a Cerveny 6/4 Bb. The CBB693 with a rose brass bell. A great tuba in the Bohemian tradition and well worth a look. The best rotary Bb I’d owned, and that included Melton and Rudi Meinl. Many players who haven’t spent time on a Bb, especially a big Bb call them for not having any clarity in the articulation. The term “Bubble B” was coined by the late, great John Fletcher, but at the time I think there was very little else in the UK but a B&H Bb and a Kosicup or 24AW mouthpiece. My current experience is that the “bubble” in the articulation is more to do with the adapter than the instrument. Hence Gene going for a bigger cup diameter on Bb.
Back to the Laskey… A few years ago Scott Laskey passed away. And with that Laskey mouthpieces stopped being produced. A massive loss to Tuba players. But the Eastman happened. Eastman winds stepped in and bought Laskey Mouthpieces from Scott’s widow. They are now produced by Bacun Musical Services in Canada. Bacun have taken many of Scott’s hand made mouthpieces and standardised them into a CNC produced range that is consistent within microns of each other. And this is where it gets exciting for an “mature” Bb player like myself. They have taken the 32H that Scott had produced for Gene, and expanded the 32* to all their cup designs! I’d had a 32H, but It was a bit too bright on the Cerveny so I’d bored the back bore out. This was fantastic on the Cerveny, but now I’ve got the Holton, would it work as well? Back to the Holton development: The over bored 32H worked really well with the 1993 leadpipe but still lacked the Bb velvet I wanted. I made 2 pipes to try on the Holton: MY MJC-02 Bb pipe. I’ve been putting these on B&H BBb tubas, with great feed back from the players, for as few years.
And an MJC-01… I first put the 03 pipe on. OMG, it shook the building! Literally, the amount of fundamental it was producing was unbelievable. But was it the right sound? I wasn’t sure. I left in on for a couple of months and got used to it. But it had developed a couple of intonation quirks, mainly because I’d made it a bit too long to get the tuba up to pitch. So a few weeks ago I put the 01 pipe on. I made it 2” shorter than the 03 pipe. Eurika! The change was dramatic. The pipe had brought the tuning back in line and focus back to the sound without losing too much velvet!
But which mouthpiece? The bored 32H had now become too open. I’d opened the back because it was too bright on the Cerveny, but now, on the Holton, it lacked centre. Entre one of the new designs. The 32G. The G or Geib cup is deeper than the Heleberg cup but keeps a similar throat and back bore. And my sound and response are back. Control and lots of Bb velvet! So, now I’ve taken the plunge, and Mike Johnson Custom are now stocking Laskey mouthpieces. The plan is to soon have a full set of demonstration models that players can come and find what suits them and their playing needs.
*These are my thoughts. If some of it's not 100% accurate, sorry…