Did I Screw up my Cup Mute?

[llangston1]

I got a new H&B cup mute recently and after watching a youtube video on filing down the corks I started filing the corks to get it to fit properly. Right out of the bag the points of the scallops on the cup were a good 3/4 to an inch or more away from my Olds Recording bell. I could play most of my range with no reduction in the corks. The low G and F#were a little iffy. As I filed the corks down I kept playing my range OK and eventually the low notes were better but the mute did not sound like a real cup mute. So I kept filing them down. Now the scallops are around 1/8"-1/4" away from the bell. However the notes in my range don't sound very good at all. The lower notes are very hard to produce and sometimes even sound bubbling like there is water in the horn. When I pull the mute out I can see condensation drops inside the bell. I really don't like how it plays right now. Hitting any given note (Low g to g on top of the staff) is a guess right now. So do I need to file it down more til the scallops touch the bell or get new corks and start all over again? Just what is the correct process to fit a cup mute to any given horn? [/youtube]

[cheiden]

I filed my H&B cup until the points of the cup nearly touch the bell. It would touch if I forced it, but I don't. For me, with unmodified corks it played and sounded like a wonky straight mute. With the much tighter cup it produces none of that hinky straight mute duck sound and much more like that nice hollow cup sound. With my tight cup I've had no hint of trouble with note accuracy or bubbling. Can't imagine why that should be.
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[TKSop]

IMHO - file until the bottom G# slots properly, then stop... Go too far and results often aren't desirable.

If the sound at that point isn't quite what you're looking for, N+1 time (ie: add to your collection).

[trpthrld]

New corks and start over.

I have never seen any sense in writing extreme range (low and high notes) in any mute. Whoever writes that is just asking for sound issues.

Roger Ingram says to file straight mute corks down until the low F# "locks in nicely" and that's very true. But again - writing that low is asking for problems.

All of the above is purely my personal opinion.
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[TKSop]

[Turkle]

[nyctrumpeter]

[Crazy Finn]

[zaferis]

I'd leave it at 1/4 - 1/8 of an inch and live with it.. After all the goal is to get a good cup mute sound not necessarily to play the bottom 2 notes (would be nice to have on occassion though).

I'm thinking that there might be something else going on, primarily that those notes aren't in great shape to begin with, and this mute (or any mute) is just compounding the issue(s).
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[llangston1]

Not sure what happened to me when I first posted this but I let our first trumpet player in our community band play with the mute and he said it was fine and had no problems with low notes on his horn. I then put in back into mine and I no longer had trouble. maybe my embouchure was just messed up that day. Who knows but I will leave well enough alone for now. Thx for all the suggestions.