TromboneChat

Hello, my name is Adrià Cisneros. I'm interested in buying an euphonium mouthpiece and I want to know more about Giddings and Webster euphonium mouthpieces. My goal is to get a nice big sound with many armonics. I have this questions.

How is the feeling of the stainless metal?

What's your opinion about it?

Which one is the most suitable for my Adams E3 euphonium? Carbonaria maybe?

I know that it's a trombone chat but many trombonist play the euphonium too.

Thanks.

Steel feels a lot like gold to me. Very slippery. Too slippery for my tastes, I go way the other direction with lexan rims. Giddings pieces generally have really big throats so if that's your cup of tea you'll probably like them. I had a steel and a titanium piece threaded and generally find them, on a rim I am familiar with, to be too big which actually feels "stuffy" to me.

On Euph, I tend to prefer Doug's pieces personally. I have a Euph series with the same rim size that I use on tenor, 104N in lexan with a Euph K underpart. Plays much more in tune for me than anything else I've tried but my Euph is a non-compensating King so I'm possibly more sensitive to that than someone on a compensating euph.

It depends on what sound you're looking for.

The Giddings stuff will get you a nice huge dark sound which will work well in a lot of wind ensembles but if you're looking for something to use in a British Brass Band or even solo stuff there's a good chance it'll be too dark and/or tuba like.

Is the E3 the larger or smaller Adams?

I'm very much in the old school British Brass Band camp... can't go wrong with a Wick 4AL, Wick Steven Meid stuff or the Alliance DC series. I use my regular Elliott XT setup on Euph. Smaller than what most people would use but whenever I play Euph it's primarily as a "solo" instrument or in Brass Band so it works well!

Stainless steel is awesome but the feedback is pretty different... beware of that... I couldn't stand it the different sound I heard behind the bell. The sound in front of the bell isn't any different than brass.

I use a Giddings Kadja. It is very similar to a Schilke 51D, which I used for 30 years on a Willson 2900. I am a former student of Brian Bowman. I like stainless. I believe the harder material makes it a bit more responsive. I did a back-to-back comparison with the 51D infron of many students and music colleagues. Their conclusion was that the stainless had a slightly clearer sound.

Another (at least for me!) fantasic euphonium mouthpiece is the Yamaha 53H. Big sound and lots of harmonics. It seems you can get a new one for less than $50.

Just an observation: of the roughly eighteen to two dozen primarily or exclusively euphers I know who switched to stainless steel mpcs at some point over the last 10-12 years, all of them switched back to brass (or in three instances, switched to bronze) mpcs after 2-3 years.

Make of that what you will.