Thats the great thing about this design. The mute can be made to work with practically any bell flare. In this case I would supply you with some size 2.5 corks that would provide some additional adjustment for wider bell flares, and ultimately I could make custom sizes for you if those were still too small.
If you order just remind me you plan to use the mute with wider bells and ill include some thicker corks with your mute.
Nathan -
Thanks for shipping so quickly - the mute arrived today!
Answering my own question:
In the straight mute configuration, a 2 or larger works with the Wild Thing.
In the cup configuration, the 2.5 and 3 corks will work. Using the 2.5 cork, the cup almost touches the bell, while the 3 has about a 1/4" gap between the cup and the bell
Nice sound from the mute, too! _________________ John
I have the screw-on convertible straight/cup/plunger mute in blue, with a flexible cup/plunger.
The corks are ingenious: modular snap-in cork assemblies of varying thickness. Typically, I start with the thickest corks, and use a rasp to file them down bit by bit, until the low F# pops. Filing too much means removing the corks and starting over with new thick corks. With the S-Mute, when the corks are too thin, you just pop in a thicker set. Easy to adjust, thicker or thinner, no gluing or filing, change them any time you like. Use the same mute with very different bells. The cork assemblies are loose and rattle a bit, which concerned me at first, but when the mute is seated in the bell, there is no motion or rattling from the corks. This is a very innovative, clever, and effective system, and it might be useful to discuss it with a patent attorney.
Straight mute: it's a nice clean, dry sound, with little buzz. Two players using these straight mutes can get an excellent blend. I think that's my biggest compliment for this mute: The blend with two trumpets with two S-Mute straight mutes. It's not a very distinctive sound, but I like that. A simple, very useful sound. I did not notice any intonation issues of any kind.
Cup mute: with the cup about 1/4" from the bell, it's an excellent round cup sound with just enough edge, which I could see using for soloing. Cup mutes really have to blend with the section, so for section work, I'd use the H&B (or Denis Wick), or whatever the principle or lead player uses. Note that this is called an "adjustable cup mute" but you can't adjust the cup relative to the rest of the mute. It's not like a Denis Wick cup mute. It's more like an H&B, where the distance from the cup to the bell can be adjusted by changing the corks. On the S-Mute, this is easy, and reversible.
Plunger: Honestly, I don't really like the sound. Also, I'm used to a rubber sink plunger with a hole in it. If I were to adopt this mute as a plunger, I would want to cut a hole in it. It looks like that would be possible with little to no change in the cup mute sound or functionality. Cutting a hole might not be possible with the magnetic model. But the sound isn't really what I'm looking for. No complaints, just personal preference.
Attachment: I have the screw-on, so I can't say much about the magnetic version. Attaching and removing the screw version is very easy, and it's secure when you screw it on. I suspect that it would suffer from wear-and-tear if the cup were removed and detatched frequently, so I would probably keep a cup-mute and a straight-mute-without-cup version rather then putting wear on the screw threads. There is not much thread; you rotate the cup less than 360 between fully off and fully on. So if a thread were to fail, there's no backup thread. Perhaps the magnetic version would address all of these concerns, but in my case, I would try to limit the attachment/removal cycles to maximize the life of the mutes.
The blue finish is unusual for a mute. It looks sort of "lathed" with fine concentric rings on the surface, but I think they are artifacts of the SLA, not machining. The flexible cup is a slightly different color, more sparkly. Although it's secondary to the sound, this is a good-looking mute. Solid blue color, no red paint to wear off!
Customer service: Nathan gave me the TH discount, and he noticed the WT in my sig and included some extra thicker corks for the bell. He included a bonus mute; probably a factory second. It's black, without a cup, and sounds pretty much exactly like the blue mute with the cup removed. Which means I would have no need to screw the cup on or off during a gig or rehearsal, I'd have a blue S-mute cup mute, a black S-mute straight mute, and my old favorite harmon and blue sink plunger from Ace Hardware. I can't say whether there will be an opportunity for me to use these mutes in the orchestra. Unless it's 2nd trumpet muted solo, my mute is probably chosen by the principal. But if I ever get to a blues or jazz jam again, I'll probably bring the cup mute to try out.
I have no need for yet another mute. So I bought an S-Mute and I don't regret it for a minute! _________________ '75 Bach Strad 180ML/37
'79 King Silver Flair
'07 Flip Oakes Wild Thing
'42 Selmer US
'90 Yamaha YTR6450S(C)
'12 Eastman ETR-540S (D/Eb)
'10 Carol CPT-300LR pkt
'89 Yamaha YCR2330S crnt
'13 CarolBrass CFL-6200-GSS-BG flg
Everyone, these reviews are really great, I appreciate you all taking a chance on my product and putting your thoughts out there. Thank you!
Quote:
This is a very innovative, clever, and effective system, and it might be useful to discuss it with a patent attorney.
Thank you for this. I certainly think so! The removable cork idea is patent-pending, meaning I have secured a provisional patent on it. I am currently working with a patent attorney.
Quote:
I suspect that it would suffer from wear-and-tear if the cup were removed and detatched frequently, so I would probably keep a cup-mute and a straight-mute-without-cup version rather then putting wear on the screw threads.
The threads should be fairly robust. PET is a slipperyish plastic so there should not be too much friction wear, not to the point of failure at least in theory. The flexible version is even more robust still, owing to its pliable nature. Where the threads are vulnerable, (like any other threaded surface that is exposed like these are) is to impact damage. You will want to avoid dropping the threaded straight mute onto a hard surface. I have a thread protector design that I will implement at some point if interest in the mute continues to grow. This would screw onto the end of the mute and would be made of the same material as the flexible cup, effectively creating a bumper on the end of the straight mute.
All that aside...if any of you experience a total failure of the mute that is not from negligence (crushing it in a gig bag, dropping it off the stage, etc) I will replace it at my discretion. Just reach out to me here or through the website. _________________ Dr. Nathan Sobieralski
www.s-mute.com
Principal Trumpet, Sequoia Symphony
Department of Music (Trumpet)
California State University, Fresno
ALSO: The 10% discount is still active, just reply to this thread and PM me to get the code. _________________ Dr. Nathan Sobieralski
www.s-mute.com
Principal Trumpet, Sequoia Symphony
Department of Music (Trumpet)
California State University, Fresno
S-Mute will be attending the ITG conference in San Antonio May 31-June 4! I will be there with a ton of my mutes for you to try out. I will also be doing a reduced pricing pre-sale on a select quantity of my mutes, which will be active now through May 31. If you take advantage of this special pricing you MUST pick up your mute in person in San Antonio during the conference. I look forward to seeing many of you there!
I'm gonna try the S-Mute! _________________ Flip Oakes Wild Thing Bb and C with 1.5 TCC, XT, C, O, & L mouthpieces
Bach 183S (undersprung valves & straight taper pipe) with 1.5 Flip Oakes XF
I hope to see many of you at ITG in a few weeks! I'll have a bunch of my mutes to sell and also some new products I've developed, some of which have no analog in the trumpet world. I am very excited to show those off to you! In the meantime I am still running a promotion exclusive to TH members, simply reply to this post with "I'm going to try the S-Mute!" and ill PM a discount code to you.
Hey Matt! Its great to hear the mute is working as intended, as a versatile all-in-one type setup.
Riojazz wrote:
Good luck at the ITG. As my review above shows, I love mine (magnetic, flexible). It's the only mute I needed at the last big band concert.
I also used the piccolo trumpet mute for warmup at Easter and it had a more pleasant sound than my existing metal one.
_________________ Dr. Nathan Sobieralski
www.s-mute.com
Principal Trumpet, Sequoia Symphony
Department of Music (Trumpet)
California State University, Fresno
I am really excited to share this with you all. It is an attachment that turns your S-Mute with removable corks into a practice mute! I recently received my provisional patent on it so I can now go public with it. More info is in the video below:
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The removable cork idea is patent-pending, meaning I have secured a provisional patent on it. I am currently working with a patent attorney.
