75 Backbore

[Joshua712]

Who can tell me a little bit about the "75" backbore that Karl Hammond and Scott Laskey made at Schilke? What does it compare to? What's the general size and geometry of it? Do any of y'all have experience with it?

Thanks
Josh

[jaysonr]

I've had a couple of Laskey mouthpieces with the 75 backbore. It's a smaller 24 style, and Scott told me via e-mail it was the backbore (of his) which Herseth preferred. I liked the way it felt, but something about Laskey pieces (I'm thinking the rim) keep me from sounding good on them. The best I ever tried of his was a "B" cup w/ a 22/75 setup.

Good luck!
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Isaiah 40:8
3 John 2

[Dan in Sydney]

Over 25 years ago I remember having a conversation with Scott Laskey about this very subject. When I was Principal in Sydney, this was my "go to" mouthpiece for many years. The original backbore he developed with Mr. Herseth was not based on the 24, but on the Bach 7. He called this his "1172" backbore and I believe to this day uses this one as standard on his own line of pieces. One day Herseth was trying this out with a few different cups, and asked Scott to just "push the reamer in a bit further". This provided a bit more "give" and headroom particularly in the upper register and the 75 backbore was born. This backbore works particularly well with a B cup, or with Scott's "1S" cup, which is his MD cup today. To compare it to a 24, it's much more open just after the throat, but not quite as flared toward the end of the mouthpiece--a different shape. I found it to stay more round and focused at loud dynamics over the 24, especially in a barn like the Sydney Opera House. When Karl Hammond took over from Scott at Schilke, he also used these backbores in his custom work. When Karl started making his own line, he made me a custom backbore called a "4/75" which meant that he inserted the 75 reamer in his #4 backbore to give it a bit more room, but not as large overall as his #5, which is based on a largish 24 shape.
It's funny--I recently had Matt Frost copy the backbore on my Mt. Vernon 1C which he now has in his lineup. This to me is very similar to the 75, in that it sounds slightly "thicker" for lack of a better term and actually measures larger after the throat than either a 24 or Matt's no. 10 backbore.
_________________
Principal Trumpet,
Sydney Symphony (1978-2011)
Lecturer in Trumpet, Australian National University 1990-2010
Bach Artist and Clinician, Soloist
http://www.conn-selmer.com/en-us/artist-information/centerstage/artist-roster/daniel-mendelow/