$35 has changed everything

[Trumpetingbynurture]

Like some/many of you, I've bought more mouthpieces than one rightly should, and still no 'magic'.

There a few mouthpiece that I have really liked (such as the Marcink CG Personal), but most of the time I've had persistent problems, even while my playing has developed. The most frustrating of these is a tendency to simple 'slip up' in the middle of a passage. Even though I have a pretty strong High F, and can squeeze out double Cs, but medium-high passages like in the Haydn Concerto feel like walking a tightrope with greasy feet. (I only own a Bb, have never played an Eb trumpet). I've tried deeper and shallower cups, larger and smaller diameters, and larger and narrower backbores etc and they make it like you weigh more or less, or have bigger or smaller feet, but all the same, you're walking a greasy tightrope and inevitably... slip.

Another problem I have had forever is a complete inability to slot a 4th ledger G. I can play a loud F or F# right underneath it, but if I tried for the G, I'd pop over it to a (weak) Double-something. It's driven me looney for years. I've also always had problems with articulating above high D in the upper register.

Well, I rather randomly saw an ad recently for a cheap electric drill kit being sold at Kmart ($35 bucks) and thought "Why not?". The interest in it being that there isn't anywhere where I am that I can take a mouthpiece to have the throat enlarged, and I've always wished I had the chance to just muck around with drilling out the throat. I'm the kind of person who really enjoys tinkering.

Well, anyway, I bought the drill kit, and it had a random selection of drill bit sizes, marked just 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. No idea what the actual sizes were. All the same, I grabbed the smallest bit that that wouldn't fit down my #27 throat mouthpieces and started drilling on an old mouthpiece I don't use very often.

When I was done, I started playing and my first through was "Seriously?!". My sound was immediately fuller, my dynamic range was bigger on both ends, and I felt immediately more relaxed. Everything sounded more centred. Articulation had a little more clarity to the front.

It was a really substantial difference.

I looked at the top and backbore combo I tend to play on most of the time, it looked back. If it could run away, it would have. I thought 'what the hell', grabbed the drill and set to work.

This time, the change was, if anything, more dramatic. I pulled out some of the tricky medium-high passagework that has always driven me to insanity. And out they came, cleaner, easier and with a more open, ringing sound than I've probably ever managed.
Then I played up until out came 4th ledger line G, free and easy.

I started to see light at the end of the tunnel, and for once, it wasn't an oncoming train.

I eyed one of my preferred shallow-cup mouthpieces. If metal could pray, it was surely doing so.

Off I went with the drill again. And again, seemingly every aspect of my playing got comparatively better. I played the first *Mean* double A I ever have. I played hot canary, and those High Fs were effortless, and the double C and Bb were shockingly loud. Shortly later, I played: middle C, Triple C, Low C, triple C without resetting the mouthpiece or anything. It was absolutely nutso.

Needless to say, it was an interesting afternoon for me and I'm feeling very optimistic about life and playing in general right now.

Also, in case you're wondering, I was able to deduce the size of the drill bit in question by comparing it to my #22 and #20 Marcink CG Personals. Several of my mouthpieces now apparently have around a #21 throat. They all play better now than they did before... Go figure!

[spitvalve]

I had a Giardinelli 7S that was really tight and stuffy. On a lark I drilled it out to a 23 throat and suddenly it was incredibly loud and I could bark double G's all day on it...but the tone control and intonation went out the window.

Interesting experiment. Glad it worked for you.
_________________
Bryan Fields
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1991 Bach LR180 ML 37S
1999 Getzen Eterna 700S
1977 Getzen Eterna 895S Flugelhorn
1969 Getzen Capri cornet
1995 UMI Benge 4PSP piccolo trumpet
Warburton and Stomvi Flex mouthpieces

[TKSop]

It could be that you respond well to cylindrical throats, also - if the pieces started out with tapered throats your drill bit will have converted them to cylindrical.

Just for fun... Have you tried much Warburton stuff? Did you have a distinct preference for star Vs non-star of the same size backbores?

[JayKosta]