Lotus Mouthpieces

claf · Regular Member Joined: 01 Oct 2017 Posts: 48

Jan 6 according to my mailbox.
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Bb: Schagerl James Morrison, Van Laar B7, XO 1600i
C: Bach Philadelphia

wiemelen · Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2021 5:49 am Post subject:

Mine is also on its way (to Belgium)
Estimated delivery is tomorrow (Saturday) ... but knowing the postal services, I won't be surprised if that will become somewhere next week.
All packages I ordered last few months, delivered by the postal services, were delayed. Each time they claimed it was because they didn't receive the package yet ... which was true, but only because they did not have the capacity to process it in their system

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Trumpet : Yamaha YTR-9335CHS + Yamaha YTR-6335H
Trumpet mouthpieces : Lotus 2L (main) + Lotus 2L2
Flugelhorn : Kanstul 1525 with Curry 1,5FL
Cornet : Conn 80a (1919) with Curry 1,5 BBC + Curry 1,5 VC + GR L66,9 #6

acritzer · Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2021 5:50 am Post subject:

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

acritzer · Posted: Sun Mar 28, 2021 7:43 am Post subject:

Usedtobegood · Posted: Mon Mar 29, 2021 3:57 am Post subject:

Mine was ordered January 13 and shipped March 27 via UPS. Estimated delivery date is Friday April 2? to Chicago. Seems quick, will advise when received.

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

acritzer · Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2021 8:06 am Post subject:

acritzer · Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2021 11:09 am Post subject:

3 of my 4 mouthpieces just shipped via ups.

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

wiemelen · Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2021 1:00 am Post subject:

Mouthpiece arrived today by mail (not UPS).
As expected, the mail services took their time (6 days from Italy to Belgium).

On 1st inspection, the mouthpiece looks really nice (inside and outside).
No noticeable traces of any rework that they needed to do so it seems.
Haven't played it yet, that will be for this evening after work.
Will keep you posted.

Oh and btw ... it's not an April's fool joke

_________________
Trumpet : Yamaha YTR-9335CHS + Yamaha YTR-6335H
Trumpet mouthpieces : Lotus 2L (main) + Lotus 2L2
Flugelhorn : Kanstul 1525 with Curry 1,5FL
Cornet : Conn 80a (1919) with Curry 1,5 BBC + Curry 1,5 VC + GR L66,9 #6

wiemelen · Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2021 2:17 pm Post subject:

First impressions of the Lotus 2M are pretty good after playing on it for about 30 minutes.
- The new the design looks good, but does weigh less than the old one.
- Because of the more shallow cup, I will need to pay more attention on focussing the air flow. Guess it will take some more time getting used to it.
- Sound of the M is a bit less warm and dark than the L, but seems to be even and in tune throughout the registers.
- Playing the low register is still easy with a good sound.
- Concerning the high register, I didn't gain any new notes, but I have to admit that I never played a solid G over high C with such ease. I even think in the high register, I need some more backing off on the M (more than I already needed on the L).

I hope the good feeling about this mouthpiece will remain also after the honeymoon period. So I'm curious what the next few weeks will bring.
_________________
Trumpet : Yamaha YTR-9335CHS + Yamaha YTR-6335H
Trumpet mouthpieces : Lotus 2L (main) + Lotus 2L2
Flugelhorn : Kanstul 1525 with Curry 1,5FL
Cornet : Conn 80a (1919) with Curry 1,5 BBC + Curry 1,5 VC + GR L66,9 #6

Trumpetvt91 · New Member Joined: 18 Mar 2021 Posts: 2

I finally got it and I'm far from being satisfied!
I would start saying it took many days to arrive, I paid €20 for Shipping with UPS but they used standard Post service...
Considering they are late with delivery by 2 months, I would have hoped they would have kept at least this promise.
I wonder how they will justify charging UPS and sending it then by snail mail.
So I went ahead and opened up the package, it seems to come from Holland, from a certain Angelica Meza (Angelica Meza artisana cases it said on the packaging), I looked it up and it seems to be Adam's wife/girlfiriend???
It also looks like she has a small bussiness in historical instrument cases, so I assume he "uses" her bussiness to send, and return mouthpieces, as it said on the tracking and Packaging...
I took out the bubble wrap, and expected a small invoice, or proof of payment, nothing there... someone got one?
Then the mouthpiece, I couldn't resist to verify if there were any flaws in the plating, as they had problems with that.
Inside it looked acceptable, but I had rests of what I could imagine is Polishing wax, don't they clean the mouthpieces prior to sending...
So I took out a rag and some Mouthpiece cleaner to get rid of that.
And then I noticed some spots underneath the rim with a cloudy like finish on the plating, like inside the grooves that are supposed to look like a Lotus, but on places the plating shouldn't be like that.
As I put the mouthpiece in my trumpet, I noticed a "wobble", but tried it anyways.
As I ordered an equivalent of a Bach 3D, I tried it in comparison with my 2 Bach 3D's, both Bach's came out as better sounding mouthpiece.
After playing for some time I noticed some weird vibration/noise, because of the wobble I guesse air or condense water gets between mouthpiece shank and the inside of the receiver and makes that noise, all Problems I do not have with my Bach mouthpiece...
So the overall sound impression isn't bad, don't get me wrong, but I don't think I would buy a second one, but therefor maybe a third Bach 3D

Out of pure curiosity I took it over to my repair Tech, as I had to go pick up my Selmer trumpet from repairs!!, An thought I would ask him what he thought this wobble came from.
He checked it, in front of me, on a new Bach, a Yamaha Xeno, a Stomvi Titan and in some receivers he had laying around, to our surprise, every single one had wobble, some more and some less, but that shouldn't be like tis!
He measured it in length an showed me depending the side you measured, one showed 80,56mm, the other 80,60mm, He told me a normal CNC machine had a tolerance of 0.01mm, not 0.04mm....
He also looked at the shank, thickness once again, 0.45 on one side and 0.37!!! on the other, even with the naked eye you see this.
So his conclusion is that the mouthpiece can't be symmetric nor concentic and that these odd measurements could cause wobble.
He had an older Lotus mouthpiece from a client who wanted to part with it, one still made by Egger, this one did not have these problems...
So did I get one of the "Repaired" or are they all having these problems??!!
My conclusion is ; I'll probably send it back or sell it "as-is" and be a bit mad with myself that I entrusted my money with the wrong guys.
BTW, for those interested, My tech made me some pictures in case I wanted to write them an e-mail with my findings, I can send them also to those who want them...

Bryant Jordan · Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2021 11:02 am Post subject:

Winghorn · Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2021 1:22 pm Post subject:

Bryant-

I sent a couple of e-mails to the address on the Lotus web site, but have yet to receive an answer, even after several days.

Do you have have a better e-mail address for getting ahold of the Lotus folks or some other way to contact them?

The address I have is: www.lotustrumpets.com

Any help would be much appreciated.

Steve

acritzer · Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2021 1:32 pm Post subject:

Winghorn · Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2021 4:13 pm Post subject:

Thank you.

Steve

Jaw04 · Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2021 7:15 pm Post subject:

I ordered a mouthpiece end of January and haven't gotten any updates.

Bryant Jordan · Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2021 8:24 pm Post subject:

Steve,

I emailed Charles Wagner. He was pretty prompt to respond.

Best