Plastic Mouthpiece

[brumpet]

I'm considering on getting a plastic mouthpiece but I just wanted to know if there are any advantages to using this.

[TKSop]

I guess the main question would be: Why?

Is there something you're looking for specifically?
Perhaps for playing in the cold or allergy related?

Personally I find fully plastic mouthpieces most unsatisfying - plastic tops on metal backbores are better, plastic screwrims on brass underparts are the nearest you'll get to your standard mouthpiece (but with the rim-feel of the plastic)

[brumpet]

So that I can see my own embouchure when I play.

[Pete]

[Josh_Harris]

I use my plastic mouthpiece only when playing outside in the cold. However, the tone quality is not nearly as good as a brass mouthpiece.

[trumpetman.rob]

They work well for Bobby Shew these days.

[Andy Cooper]

They sound and feel much better with a mouthpiece weight that covers the outside of the cup area. A shank weight does not seem to help as much.

[iiipopes]

A clear plastic mouthpiece simply to observe the embouchure without a teacher to help diagnose what, if anything needs improvement, is futile. Remember Confucius: knowledge without thought is useless; thought without knowledge is dangerous.

Yes, even I use a Kelly lexan mouthpiece outdoors in cold weather for all the reasons stated for cold weather.

Bobby Shew can play anything he wants and still sound great. Most of the rest of us are mere mortals and are better off using conventional mouthpieces, with the exceptions noted.

Yes, for my tuba, for lip comfort, I do use a lexan rim on a standard mouthpiece. Tone and comfort together.

So if it is a comfort or other issue, lexan, as a rim, is a good alternative. But just to have a clear mouthpiece for the sake of observing embouchure is as worthless as the track and field athlete who carries a stopwatch with him to the exclusion of working on fundamentals: weight training, flexibility, sprints, endurance exercises, etc., to better his stamina and performance.

I suggest you re-think the entire plastic issue.

[Ben Woodruff]

I had a lengthy reply written here and apparently the forum gremlins ate it. The short of it: try one, you might like it. Don’t dismiss plastic outright as a ‘toy.’ If you do like the feel of one of the cheap ones there are manufacturers out there that offer high quality plastic options (including Dr Dave’s Wedge which I’m currently playing on). I can definitely feel the difference in quality between a cheap Kelly or Mutec vs a more expensive Wedge or Pickett Brass.

Play on what you want, not on what others tell you you should play on (unless they are paying your bills... then maybe).
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[blbaumgarn]

I wish we would have had them back in the day. Cold days they would have been very welcome. As far as pros using them, we need to remember that people like Bobby Shew could stick their mouthpiece in a 3 foot piece of flexible garden hose and still sound fantastic. If I tried one and was convinced it played better for me I would probably continue to use it. So far I haven't been 50-60 dollar curious to have one, since I am old and don't have to march in cold weather anymore. They definitely fill a usable niche in trumpet or brass playing in general.
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"There are two sides to a trumpeter's personality,
there is one that lives to lay waste to woodwinds and strings, leaving them lie blue and lifeless along a swath of destruction that is a
trumpeter's fury-then there is the dark side!" Irving Bush

[veery715]