Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: OK, I did it - update


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Posted by Klaus on October 20, 2001 at 21:39:16:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: OK, I did it - update posted by Jay Bertolet on October 20, 2001 at 08:31:52:

Yet another long one, which again could have been placed elsewhere in this thread:

There is at least one way to make a direct comparison between standard weight and heavy weight in the case of brass mouthpieces.

All of my mouthpieces have started out as standard models. Most of them have had their backbores opened. All of the Denis Wick models (trombones, baritones, and cornet) have been equipped with the DW tone boosters, which are factory made weights, that can be mounted securely to cover the area from the rim of the mouthpiece down to the upper end of the stem.

On the Marcinkiewicz 1 1/2C trumpet mouthpiece I use a weight made out of the cup of the Yamaha 51, that followed my euph.

For my Giardinelli French horn mpc, my Yamaha Yeo bassbone/euph mpc, and for my PT-50 tuba mouthpieces (one modified, one standard) do I use the same mouthpiece weight.

It is made by a retired ships engineer out of a bronze end nut for mounting ship engines. The end bulb was cut off, and the inner thread area was turned, on a lathe, into a slightly conical opening.

It does of course not fit either of the stems. On all four mouthpieces it sits on a fitting made out of an artificial rubber garden hose.

On the Yeo and on the PT-50’s the weight sits on the top of the stem, so that it touches the outside bottom of the cup. On the Giardinelli it sits on the cup close up to the backside of the screw rim.

That my mouthpiece weigth basically is mounted on an elastical fitting with only very little metal-to-metal contact certainly will have some effect. I will refer to what Rick Denney has written on the effects of material structures in postings on this board.

I have quite clear ideas, why mouthpiece weights help me in getting, what I want in brass playing. And I also have quite clear ideas, why some other brass players do not find any advantage in using such weights.

Players, that play with a very wide airstream, can have a tendency to overload their instruments. Not in the sense, that the sound is breaking up. More in the sense, that some undesired overtones, very high up, are triggered to sound.

These overtones are not rich in energy, but they still can create a bit of fuss on the top of the sound. Maybe they even can phase out parts of the desirable overtone components of the sound.

I will not deny any voodoo or placebo effects being factors in the whole mouthpiece weight question, but neither voodoo nor placebo do work without a spiritual, maybe even intellectual, understanding in the person(-s), that benefit(-s) from them.

My, more or less voodooistic, understanding says, that an added weight to the throat area dampens/cancels-out the undesired low-energy overtone components. Thereby the desired overtone components are given an acoustically freer, hence more effective, soundpath to work through.

That might lead to the belief, that I feel less resistance, when I play with the weight mounted. But I actually feel, that I play up to a more resistant instrument. But also an instrument, that is more determined about the sound it gives away. One could call that an improved slotting, yet it is not harder to lip notes up or down. The slotting is in the tuning and the balancing of the overtone series.

My idea about players, that do not benefit from the use of mouthpiece weights, is that they from talent and/or schooling exercise that finer adjustment of the overtone spectre by their playing technique. When they do not trigger undesired overtones, then they can hear no improvement from using heavier mouthpiece equpment.

Some good Italian band players strive for very piercing sounds. I am quite sure, they would find their artistic expressivity ruined, if they were forced to used heavier mouthpieces.

A big band trumpeter I played with some years ago, used a Vincent Bach mouthpiece with every possible weight shaved off, when he played lead. When he played solos, he used the same cup and rim # in its heavyweight version.

Heavyweight mouthpieces of course are a legit objects of discussion on a board like this. I am less convinced, that either side of the discussion should write off their opponents as nutheads.

Klaus



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