Expert: Kenton Scott - 9/21/2011

Question
I am having trouble finding a mouthpiece for an antique mellophone.  The local music store does not have any suggestions .  The mellophone was made by the Henry Diston Mfg. Co. of Williamsport, PA in approximately 1902-1909. Even the mellophone mouthpiece adapters don't work and most mouthpieces attempted give a very poor sound.

Thank you.

Answer
Glenn,

That is going to be a tough one.  

Distin, effectively, used a vintage short shank trumpet receiver.  It is larger than the mellophone and most alto horn shank mouthpieces.  Distin called his mellophones, "altophones", and they were a broader bore than other mellophones.  With the right mouthpiece, it should play beautifully.

I know Al Perkin, of Al's Mellphone page, http://www.alsmiddlebrasspages.com/mellophone/, used to have a Distin Altophone.  I'm not sure what he may have used for a mouthpiece.  You may want to ask him.

Other than lucking into a vintage Distin mouthpiece, I think your best bet will probably be to have something customized.  I wouldn't recommend modifying the horn, but that would be a possibility.  You could have a custom mouthpiece made.  But, I think I would recommend that you take the horn and a mouthpiece that you like to a local machine shop and have them custom make an adapter for you.  

Before you start all that though, you may want to experiment with some black tape around a mouthpiece shank to make sure you don't have any pitch issues.  That horn could be high pitch or it it might be below 440.  Its best to check those things first.  And make sure that the adapter doesn't take it out of tuning range.