Lotus Mouthpieces

scogia · New Member Joined: 12 Jun 2017 Posts: 2

The thing is getting weirder and weirder...
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mKPMGCjaaRR0DeAPZNd80P7Y2Q3OPrPD/view?usp=drivesdk

scogia · New Member Joined: 12 Jun 2017 Posts: 2

Jay2015trumpet · Regular Member Joined: 29 May 2015 Posts: 74

I ordered one as well in the presale. I am wondering if Mr. Rapa does not have the capital to just scrap the current 600 piece order and begin anew. It seems his firm is trying to save the first production batch at all costs. Don't know about the "redesign." It will be interesting to see what it all comes together to be when shipped.

Winghorn · Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 3:36 pm Post subject:

kevin_soda · Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 4:01 pm Post subject:

lipshurt · Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 4:06 pm Post subject:

This is not far fetched at all. He is telling everyone quite a bit about what happened, and what they did to fix it. If I got it right, it seems that the plating company did not vapor degrease the pieces. That could be because the chemical for that is being phased out and they probably used a different chemical that did not blast the grease or oil from the inside. That would make silver look flakey. Easy to fix, just need to scrub the inside with a 3m type pad. Then replate, but if they did not change anything it might happen again because of the chemical prep. By the way, this is why everyone here uses Anderson plating. They know the issues with mouthpieces. So he has to get a plating company to figure out what the deal is with mouthpieces.

As for the outside that is a bit odd, but he’s got those milled facets around the outside. Nice look I guess but that is a pain to deal with. There are milling tool marks in those facets, which look kind of nice, and I bet those are hard for the plating company to deal with especially if they can’t use tri-chlor. Sounds like when rebuffing the pieces the facets edges started to round off and be inconsistent so they scrapped the idea of the milling marks and did a brushed matte Finish instead. All good, no dif as far the mouthpiece goes.

So he is gonna make his 600 pieces get over the finish line after all. Good for him, and everyone has to maybe wait a couple weeks extra.

Trumpet players are not the same as other people. They deserve to be treated better than someone who isn’t a trumpet player, at least by other trumpet players.
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Mouthpiece Maker
vintage Trumpet design enthusiast
www.meeuwsenmouthpieces.com
www.youtube.com/lipshurt

kevin_soda · Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 4:36 pm Post subject:

Yeah, maybe these are all normal problems and maybe he's just being too hopeful and transparent. As a consumer, hearing about the issues due to your manufacturing process changes is not normal and I think it's unfortunate that he took the money before he had a product ready to sell. That seems to be a thing now with crowd-funding.
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Kevin

acritzer · Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2021 5:23 pm Post subject:

I think most of the frustration, as is often the case, stems from miscommunication.
-I've been told that the entire original 600+ order had silver plating flaws.....I've also been told that only 100 of the original 800 pieces were even silver plated.
-I've been told that the outer design change was something they had planned to do.....I've also been told that the outer design change and cutting was because they couldn't cleanly cut the old design.
-I've been told the first 100 or so were being sent to the shipping company 2 weeks ago, with larger batches heading out daily....Then I was told pieces weren't being plated until next week.

NONE of this is to say it's deliberate or nefarious in anyway. NONE of this is to say that the mouthpieces won't be great. I'm simply pointing out that clear communication should be a priority, especially when people have paid several hundreds of dollars well in advance.

chapahi · Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2021 2:17 am Post subject:

Would anyone have actually preferred to pay last year's prices to not experience the rigamarole? It's a serious question...
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Sima, Kanstul 1525 Flugel and Kanstul pocket trumpet. Olds Super

bellicapelli · Regular Member Joined: 04 Feb 2021 Posts: 21

Is it so unreasonable to expect that a company’s statements to their customers are consistent one to another? It is a serious question.

acritzer · Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2021 4:12 am Post subject:

SMrtn · Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2021 3:28 pm Post subject:

I just bought one - even though the site's grammar sucks. Where are the proofreaders these days? Gone I tells ya.

JayKosta · Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2021 3:32 pm Post subject:

WigglePig · Regular Member Joined: 16 Apr 2020 Posts: 14

As I am waiting for the new style new Lotus mouthpiece I ordered to arrive, I spotted that a local brass emporium had some of the older style new Lotus mouthpieces at a substantial discount. As I'm waiting for a 2M in bronze I decided to go mad and order the Plus model 3XL to try while I'm waiting.

Ooh.

This mouthpiece is surprisingly good! Unforgiving but the intonation is superb and the sound is huge! Last night I played for longer, higher and more dynamically than I have managed before! Whether it's the placebo effect or whether the mouthpice really is that well-designed, I cannot currently confirm, but it does seem good.

Testing continues...
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CarolBrass CTR-9990H4V
CarolBrass CPT-1000YSS (cute and sounds rather good)

acritzer · Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2021 6:40 am Post subject: Re: Surprised...

Jaw04 · Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2021 3:04 pm Post subject: Re: Surprised...

acritzer · Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2021 6:53 am Post subject:

Any chance anyone has gotten shipping notification for the new models?

WigglePig · Regular Member Joined: 16 Apr 2020 Posts: 14

ERoscio · Regular Member Joined: 24 Feb 2021 Posts: 21

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