Sodial and Toogoo

[1jazzyalex]

I was really hoping to find a source for those plastic mouthpieces, in quantity so that the price per piece would be relatively low, preferably a couple of bucks. But looking on Amazon, I found the plastic pieces to be rather expensive, but discovered the world of (probably truly horrible) cheap metal mouthpieces. So I put a 7C by "Sodial" and a 5C by "Toogoo" in my order. I believe the "Toogoo" is nickel plated, which is an idea even more horrible than the name.

So, I guess, let's discuss the real cheapies, and if anyone has a source for the plastic ones where they're a couple of bucks each (I don't mind ordering in quantity to get that price) or at least sub-$5, I'd like that very much.
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Yamaha 8335LA with Blessing 3C, 5C, Schilke 11A4A

[TKSop]

I guess the question, for me, is "why"?

I would never knowingly put a nickel plated piece on my face (I have intermittent reactions with Silver, tending to choose Gold or Plastic for that reason), and I certainly wouldn't knowingly buy a nickel plated piece.

If I wanted to play with cheap pieces, I'd probably get over to Ebay and Facebook and seek out used pieces that are reasonably priced in the first place - that way, when they're for sale used they're even cheaper...
Yamaha standard series pieces, for example, are generally pretty cheap new over here and so second-hand they rarely go for more than £15-20 even in excellent condition.
The less-popular Bach models tend to go pretty cheaply used when people really want to get rid of them, too - especially the 7C's which are common and unpopular.



When decent quality pieces can be had for barely any more, I just don't see the point in buying the MSA (mouthpiece shaped object) junk pieces

[1jazzyalex]

I'm hoping the Toogoo isn't really nickel plated but rather a bad translation into English. It if it, it might be good for learning to do silver plating with since I believe nickel is often used under silver and gold plate.

I want to experiment with making things and literally cheap enough that you can hand them to your kid nicknamed "bam bam" or to the local homeless guy who swears he was a brass maven in high school and can't afford even a $100 TSO off of Amazon - if he could order from Amazon in the first place.

I'm pretty much prevented from doing commerce on my own on Ebay. This is firstly because I work for a guy, listing things on Ebay for him so when I'm on Ebay, Ebay thinks I'm him.

Ebay is REALLY STRANGE about more than one person using an account, or even two people knowing each other and being a few miles apart and occasionally buying each other's stuff. I almost lost my account and a friend almost lost his, because of this strangeness.

There's no way I'm going to risk my livelihood and part of the livelihood of a valued friend by participating in Ebay at all on my own.

Also, this is one of those guys who has no ability to save or budget, so even if I found something interesting I wanted to buy, doing so, as him, even for as little as $20, could cause a "cascade failure" where a check bounces, making other checks bounce, and next thing they're getting nasty letters from their mortgage company. No kidding.

Yeah, Ebay is kind of like dealing with a powerful and unstable individual like Stalin. I don't mind saying this because I'm sure Ebay would be flattered by the comparison. Ebay is high-grade craziness, that I've observed up close for 20 years now. Stay in good terms with the beast, and you'll do OK. Piss it off and you'll find yourself collecting cans by the roadside for a living.

I'm also interesting in learning to refurbish as in clean up, replate if necessary, old mouthpieces but it seems even the old ones found in pawn shops and so on are $30 and up.
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Yamaha 8335LA with Blessing 3C, 5C, Schilke 11A4A

[iiipopes]

I have a Kelly for outdoors in inclement weather. That's the only plastic, well, lexan, mouthpiece I know about that actually has playability, and is designed to be the counterpart to the conventional brass mouthpieces they are named after. Everybody should have one for outdoor inclement weather, or as a spare, or to keep in the car, etc.
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King Super 20 Trumpet; Sov 921 Cornet
Bach cornet modded to be a 181L clone
Couesnon Flugelhorn and C trumpet

[snichols]

I would give Trent Austin a call. The Faxx plastic mouthpieces on his website are the cheapest I can think of from recent memory. If you're looking to buy in bulk for something, he might be able to work out a deal, but bear in mind that that price is already pretty low.

http://austincustombrass.mybigcommerce.com/all-clear-polycarbonate-faxx-7c-mouthpiece-perfect-for-marching/

[1jazzyalex]

Snichols - Those look interesting, they're $25 or so on Amazon. I'll have to keep Austin Custom Brass in mind thanks.
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Yamaha 8335LA with Blessing 3C, 5C, Schilke 11A4A

[1jazzyalex]

The 5C arrived today all its nickel-plated glory, yep, it's not a misprint or mistranslation, the sucker really is nickel-plated.

Having a bit of a nickel allergy myself, I will keep it away from my chops.

But why would I want a nickel-plated MP anyway? Well, if I'm messing around with PVC pipe and want to make "mouthpiece recievers" by heating up said PVC and cramming a MP in and letting it cool then removing the MP, the nickel-plated wonder is a good "tool" for this purpose.

Also if I ever decide to experiment to learn how to do plating, it'd be a good one to experiment on.

Sub-$5, check. Craptastic, check. Nice shiny finish, check.
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Yamaha 8335LA with Blessing 3C, 5C, Schilke 11A4A

[1jazzyalex]

The other one (Sodial) came in and it's also nickel-plated. All in all, a couple of truly horrible mouthpieces unless you need a mouthpiece-shaped thing to form PVC with or something.

If Trent Hamilton on YouTube weren't all the way over in New Zealand, I'd send 'em on to him so he could "roast" them online.
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Yamaha 8335LA with Blessing 3C, 5C, Schilke 11A4A