Mouthpiece out of cow horn

[LeTromboniste]

Newest addition to my ever-growing cabinet of curiosities...a brand new mouthpiece made from a large piece of cow horn! It's for ophicleide, but could very well be used for bass trombone. Not an exact copy of anything, but based on descriptions and measurements from 19th century treatises and museum pieces made of ivory. It's about the size of a 1.5G, the cup is bowl shaped and about exactly as deep as wide, narrow semi-flat rim and a well pronounced but somewhat rounded throat. The feel of the polished rim is similar to delrin, but the material is denser.

Made by the amazing Matt Jennejohn (who is considered one of the best cornetto makers on the planet)

[SwissTbone]

Wow, interesting material for a mouthpiece. Where some historical mouthpieces made of cowhorn?

How does it sound on the bass trombone?

[LeTromboniste]

Wow, interesting material for a mouthpiece. Where some historical mouthpieces made of cowhorn?

How does it sound on the bass trombone?

Haven't tried it on trombone yet, and wouldn't use it for that anyway. But sounds great on the ophicleide. Nice compact sound with lots of core and clear articulations. Somewhat softer than a brass mouthpiece, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Lots of room in the cup to be comfortable in the low range.

There are a number of historical mouthpieces made of organic materials for all types of brass instruments, including trombone. Ivory in particular seems to have been very popular but it is obviously problematic now and not an option anymore. Some of the 19th century French trombone methods mention ivory and horn mouthpieces - Victor Cornette recommended using ivory for orchestral playing.

[JohnL]

Wow, interesting material for a mouthpiece. Where some historical mouthpieces made of cowhorn?

Certainly back when horns were made from horns (the shofar, for example), the "mouthpiece" would often have been the same material.

Wood, horn, and ivory were all pretty common mouthpiece materials at one time.

[LeTromboniste]

Even in the 20th century, you still find brass mouthpieces with ivory rims. Olds offered that option, among others.

[JohnL]

Even in the 20th century, you still find brass mouthpieces with ivory rims. Olds offered that option, among others.

The Olds design incorporated an ivory inner cup and rim which threaded into a brass outer cup and shank. I've only seen a couple intact Olds inserts (they seem to be pretty delicate). I think they were intended to serve a function similar to modern delrin rims. Given the state-of-the-art as far as plastics back then (we're talking late 1920's - early 1930's), ivory was probably the best material available.

[heinzgries]

Sam Goble makes a horn rim on his sackbut mouthpiece
http://www.samgoble.com/m-custom.html