So a little bit of background info, I am new to this forum, I play Sousaphone in my high school marching band, and I use the Conn Helleberg mouthpiece on a Yamaha YSH-411 (what seems to be a poorly made instrument, 4 out of the 5 in our section are broken in some form or fashion after 5 seasons of use). Now I love the Helleberg for concert playing but I have some problems with it. The first is that I don't think it was designed with the sousaphone in mind. It has great tone but blasting takes a good bit more than I think it should (Yes, I can push watts,my twin brother and I were called the "blaster" of my section, we once got our band director mad when he said to play a note louder, it was too loud for him). The another problem is the low register. I can play about any pedal tone but just not that loud at all (My brother and I are also the go to people for low notes). The last problem is I can't hit high note that well (highest I can play is the G above the staff, my brother was able to play the Bb above that G once but really he can play about the same range) Now I have looked up mouthpieces and asked the camera man for VSU Horsepower (Gentleman1911 on youtube) which mouthpieces they use and he said most use LOUD mouthpieces. Now I know the best mouthpiece has to do with you and your lips (I have a medium thickness upper lip and a thick lower lip, or as some people say "the upper lip of a white man and the lower lip of Jay Z") so I will probably have to try a good number of different ones but I think LOUD sounds like a good brand to me (not sure which model I will want). On LOUD's website it says Fall 2011 (My guess is that is when they will start selling again, my friend (another good tuba player but he is playing a baritone in the mb this year) ordered one in March and they told him there was a problem at the factory so they gave him his money back).
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