TromboneChat

So I've been on the lookout for something slightly different than my Doug Elliott LB setup and I figured since I was at ITF I might as well try EVERYTHING in the 1 1/8's-95D size!

Note... I'm usually pretty biased towards lighter and standard Bachish weight mouthpieces.


Greg Black: I got a chance to finally try Greg Black mouthpieces! They all played great but weren't my cup of tea; most were too heavy and too dark for my tastes. For someone who digs the dark Greg Black sound but are looking for something smaller the .312 #2 setups live up to their hype! I highly recommend trying them out!



Griego: I've never been a fan of Greigo's classic pieces for the same reason that I'm not a fan of Greg's stuff; they play great but are too heavy and dark. Well I got a chance to check out the Dave Taylor pieces and the Gerry Pagano pieces.

Holy smokes the Dave Taylor pieces are cool! Once you find a rim that matches your face those things light up! The huge back bore makes it easy just to fart out peddles and anything in the low register. The high register is actually pretty easy too in comparison to some other gigante mouthpieces I've tried. Think crossing a Laskey 93D and the low note power of a Giddings Bob Sanders and you get the Dave Taylor. Highly recommend!

The stock GP piece was alright, but wasn't for me. The lightning in a bottle they have is the GP6. Woooh! If someone said they were looking for a Schilke 60 type piece I would recommend that to them. One of the standouts of the show. Greigo had something new at the show though! He had a GP7 aka a GP6 but with a slightly smaller rim. For me the GP6 had a larger rim inching towards a 93D rim while the GP7 was more like a 114 Elliott rim. Highly recommend the GP7 if the GP6 is too big!!!

You can also get both the Taylor and GP's in regular, heavy and light weights, you just have to contact Griego directly.



Giddings: Classic Giddings stuff. Only real comment I have is that their quality has not changed since the removal of Webster which is great



Bob Reeves/BrassArk: Noah has got some cool stuff going on! Both the Mr.Bass Trombone and Orchestra Bass live up to their hype as being excellent over sized 1 1/2 and 1 1/4(?)(or is it a 1 1/8th?) sized pieces. The Mercury blank is fantastic too! Noah had something new at the show!!! a CV piece

The CV piece was one of the best mouthpieces at the show. Typical 95D sized mouthpiece but was muuuuuch more efficient than any other 95D or 0G style piece I've ever tried. Almost felt like a Elliott LB116 setup to me. I was a big fan! The rim was too big... but Noah said I could get a mouthpiece custom made to thread to my Elliott 114 rim or they could even make a similar sized rim. Being able to get a full on custom mouthpiece is pretttty sweet and is a big selling point for Reeve's stuff.



Doug Elliott: And last but not least I ended up at the Elliott booth. After trying everything out I was pretty determined I would buy either a lightweight GP7 or get a custom Reeves piece from Noah.

I ended up trying Doug's XB series in both regular and light weight and his brand new M10 shank.

I actually wasn't a fan of Doug's XB series For me they were much heavier than his LB series and for me the weight just didn't work for me. The LB series is just right

Doug's M10 shank is absolutely brilliant! I don't know what kind of voodoo mouthpiece magic he did but that shank is fantastic and fixed my complaints about my LB piece in my Shires. The M10 is just as focused as his M8 shank but is a hair more open in the low register. The M10 shank for me plays less open than M9 shank and is closer akin to the M8. I will still keep my M8 shank as it seems to work better in my Holton!

So in the end I just ended up buying Doug's M10 shank for my LB setup instead of buying a whole new mouthpiece



Great show! Moral of the story for me is you should all check out the GP6 or GP7, Noah's CV piece and Doug's stuff if you're looking for a new mouthpiece!

I didn't try a whole lot but here we go:

I had the idea in my mind that I wanted to keep the large rim size that I play on and see if anyone made a comparable mouthpiece in my DE rim size, so I only tried a handful -

Griego Alessi - 1C, 1B, and 1D
-  I don't understand, but these were the worst IMO, they were the right rim size (106), but they were incredible dead feeling and uncomfortable for my face. I felt like I was blowing at a wall with WAY too much resistance, or that my air was just getting lost in the horn somewhere, which was not a great experience.

Warburton - They were just handing me stuff while I was at their booth, and I liked a lot of what I was playing - so I don't know what it was, but it was somewhere in their 2G range of their two piece mouthpieces, and it was simply a bit diffuse sounding and uncomfortable for me to play, because it was slightly smaller than what I was used to, but the sound was good overall, minus the diffuseness in the lower register.

Greg Black - NY 1, 1.25, 1.5

I really liked the Greg Black NY 1s, it was one of the only mouthpieces I considered buying- but it was pretty comparable to what I already had been playing on in the Doug Elliott - maybe a little livelier but that was just me. If I were to buy one it would be the NY 1.25, but I don't think I will.

Doug Elliott - I went and traded one of the rims I have that I don't use anymore and picked up a Lexan N106 rim from him - I tried it and I really liked how it stuck to my face and kept me from shifting, because my mouthpiece kinda feels like it unnecessarily slides around.

YMMV, but it's just how I felt - I wish I had more time to try more stuff, but overall it was a great ITF! Another year down!

I played the GP stuff at the Edwards booth- I really liked the GP6!

The CV piece at Brassark felt really great. I want some more time on it.

I ended up buying the GB NY 1.25 after some A/B time with my current Wick 3AL. Great piece with a different feel that works well with me.

Just out of curiosity, how were the Schilke, Wick, or Bach pieces?  Where they present at ITF? 

They were there. Not much reason for me to play them!

Quote from: EWadie99 on Jul 08, 2017, 02:37AMJust out of curiosity, how were the Schilke, Wick, or Bach pieces?  Where they present at ITF? 
Anybody?

Quote from: Burgerbob on Jul 08, 2017, 07:52PMThey were there. Not much reason for me to play them!
Same. All three of those companies didn't have anything new or out of the ordinary at their respective booths.

The cool thing about ITF was trying the more "exotic" stuff that you don't see vary often. Which is why I was checking out Doug's stuff, Bob Reeves, Greg Black and Griego.

Lol Bach mouthpieces. Probably not too much new there year to year.

Quote from: harrison.t.reed on Jul 08, 2017, 08:07PMLol Bach mouthpieces. Probably not too much new there year to year.
True. I was just curious to see if the quality control has improved or how they hold up.  Doesn't hurt to ask. LOL

Quote from: harrison.t.reed on Jul 08, 2017, 08:07PMLol Bach mouthpieces. Probably not too much new there year to year.
True. I was just curious to see if the quality control has improved or how they hold up.  Doesn't hurt to ask. LOL