TromboneChat

Recently I had a Greg black mouthpiece custom made, which the guys at the shop must have been thinking.... But Why?
But for me it just worked incredibly well and sounds fantastic on the trombone I had it made for.

It was a 4g/5g rim/cup medium weight with a small shank.

What is the strangest mouthpiece you've had made that just worked or maybe failed horribly?

The rim profile from the Griego GP6 (thin and super round) scaled down slightly to 27.7mm ID, and paired with cups from Hammond's 10-series for large tenor all the way down to alto. Definitely a strange combination, which works surprisingly well for me.

The size in my profile Greg Black thought was an interesting combo. Although once I've played the 29.5 mm, my face didn't want any other size. If the backbore was any smaller my embouchure would come out of the mouthpiece cause of back pressure.

I have an LB114/LB D/D3 that actually works really well. I bought it so I could keep my bass chops up on a small horn when I was living in an apartment and had to use a practice emute but if I'm doing a ton of bass stuff I'll pop that in no problem and do a gig on it.

I find if it's strange, it really doesn't work that well. The "strangest" that actually worked for me was a Schilke 52e2. It's not all that strange. For smaller tenors, I use a DE 104C2, which might sound more like a plate than a bowl, but I've used it on alto and sub 500 bore tenor.

Honestly, my Warburton lead trombone mouthpiece is probably the strangest one I have when comparing to "normal" mouthpieces for that role. It has a 4G-sized rim, but a very shallow cup. I use it for most small bore work (not just lead), alto trombone, and bass trumpet, and it is very good at all of them.

I mean a 3g rim with a super shallow cup and small backbore… on an 88hcl. Recently used it as 2nd bone playing Mozart requiem and some jazz lead work. Sounded appropriate in both occasions.

When I was coming up in the Musical world, a Very good Bass Trombonist in town had to double once and a while on tenor. He played a Conn 78H with a Bach 1 1/2 G rim and a 6 1/2AL cup.
Worked for him

dukesboneman wrote: ↑Thu Oct 24, 2024 4:21 pm When I was coming up in the Musical world, a Very good Bass Trombonist in town had to double once and a while on tenor. He played a Conn 78H with a Bach 1 1/2 G rim and a 6 1/2AL cup.
Worked for him

Now Doug Elliott will do similar things for you, all within his coordinated mouthpiece system.
Pick the Shank that matches the trombone,
the Cup that matches the trombone and the literature/style, and
the Rim that matches your embouchure.
It's a great idea, executed superbly.

Indeed, that's pretty close to what I mentioned earlier, but a bit more extreme. 114LB = 1.14" rim diameter (vs. 1.5Gs 1.08") and a D cup is closer to Bach's C depth and it's 6.5AL depth. Mine works great.

I cut and glued up a couple Kelly plastic mouthpieces to make a 1 1/2g for my Olds R20. I used the shank of a small bore 5G (transparent green) and the rim and cup (pink and white swirl) of a large bore 1 1/2 G. Getting the throat diameters to match wound up making the mouthpiece a little long, so I jeweler-sawed off a couple millimeters from the rim. I only slightly rounded the cut rim, so it's very flat and sharp. If anybody is interested I'll upload a pic this evening.

I'm not a mouthpiece designer by any means and will probably go the Doug Elliot route if I keep playing a lot of trigger and pedal range stuff, but it was a fun (and cheap) experiment and works pretty well for my purposes.

If it works ... It's not all that strange, now is it?

I play pretty much everything with a Doug Elliott 114 rim (like a Schilke 60), so when I play large tenor I use an I cup, when I scale down bass or play euphonium I use a J cup, and when I play bass trumpet once every ten years or so I use an E cup with a small shank.

I took a few years off after some chop issues and am coming back to playing. I use a Doug Elliott 114 rim for both tenor and bass. J cup for bass and a G cup for tenor. I’m waiting on an order with Doug for a LB C+ and LB F cup for tenor.

If I had the time and was playing full time I’d absolutely use different rims for tenor and bass but with my limited practice time it’s a lifesaver being able to switch back and forth and use the same rim.

During the pandemic I had the luxury to have time to try out mouthpieces I would normally have not bothered to try as they were so out of my normal prefered sizes.

I tried and really liked the Black Premru. 2G sized and as I expected a bit too small overall for me but very fun to play and the rim was super comfortable. When I started to prepare for
auditions involving tenor trombone playing on top of bass playing, I had a GB tenor mouthpiece made with the RP rim. I knew this would not be al ong term solution but it helped me a lot with the transition as I gradually switched to more normal tenor sizes.

Strange to who? I've played a Benge 12C a lot for lead and that fit really well. I've played a Bach 15E on alto and that too works but I rather play a Bach 12E because it gives a little more room. Recently I switched between some basses I had on stands, a Holton TR180, Conn 71H, Holton TR183 and a Conn 73H. I thought I had the same mouthpiece-size on all, a Hammond 20BL. I have one with Morse taper and one with Remington taper, but it turned so out I had mixed things up and I played the Holtons with a Bach 2G. I did not notice this, and it worked really well with them. A Bach 2G is usually on the small side for me, but obviously it works well as long as I do not know it is a 2G.

/Tom