New Mouthpiece: The Wedge

[Paul.Trumpet]

I ended up liking the steel Wedge 4MD-G on a Warburton 8* backbore in the 8310Z and could not get the same fluency using weighted wedge backbores. The Engstrom MLL size backbore was very interesting - D# was very well in tune. I can imagine people who play loud all the time will LOVE the steel backbores. After some weeks on the Wedge its becoming harder to use a flat rim for me as I had to adapt my (bad) embouchure to play it.

[mike ansberry]

I am in no way knowledgeble (-sp) in acoustical properties of metal, but I have worked on a bunch of horns. I made a mouthpiece for my master's project in college. I made the cup out of aluminum. It seemed to me that the aluminum absorbed more of the vibration and transfered less to the trumpet. I would think stainless steel would absorb less and transfer more. But then what the heck do I know? I'm a middle school band director!

MIke
_________________
Music is a fire in your belly, fighting to get out. You'd better put a horn in the way before someone gets hurt.

[Paul.Trumpet]

Nope, you are right about aluminium vibrating weaker. They found steel-brass-aluminum-titanium-copper was the order of vibration amplitude for a particular laser doppler test at a certain frequency on a simple pipe. See the paper cited below - brass is actually pretty good for trumpets. Its a shame silver plate contains nickel and burns off my skin.

Sadly they did not test polycarbonate... where is my Kelly 3C?

"An investigation into wall vibrations induced in wind instruments
constructed from different metals"
J.W. Whitehouse, D.B. Sharp, and N.D. Harrop
D.E.M.E., Faculty of Technology, The Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK.

8. References
[1] Angster, J., Paal, G., Garen, W., Miklos, A., “The Effect of Wall Vibrations on the Timbre of
Organ Pipes”, Proceedings of the 16th. Int. Congress on Acoustics and 135th JASA Meeting.
Seattle, Vol. 3, pp 753-754, 1998.
[2] Pyle, R.W., “The Effect of Wall Materials on the Timbre of Brass Instruments”, Proceedings
of the 16th. Int. Congress on Acoustics and 135th JASA Meeting. Vol. 3, Seattle, pp 751-752,
1998.
[3] Coltman, J.W., “Effect of Material on Flute Tone Quality”, J. Acoust. Soc. Amer., 49 (2),
pp.520-523, 1971.
[4] Widholm, G., Linortner, R., Kausel, W., Bertsch, M., “Silver, Gold, Platinum-and the Sound
of the Flute”, Proceedings of the Int. Symposium on Musical Acoustics, Perugia, Vol.1, pp 277-
280, 2001.

[Don Lee]

[Paul.Trumpet]

Don, the Wedge seems to help make my lips keep together and focus the aperture. Its also easier to keep in the middle over crooked teeth edges. This did not work first off, I tried a 5CC and thought it was impossible to adapt to, too curved and not enough rim surface. I require quite a lot of cushion in the rim due to past lip squashing and have nickel allergy.

Some people take to it instantly, for me its been an uphill struggle even after Dave made me a piece that fit in steel. 31 years of playing with bad habits need to be undone. I'm currently finding I'm moving down backbore sizes and getting a more open feeling on the Wedge piece. For me it works fine on Warburton backbores - I've just sold my last Warburton tops on Ebay. Very tempted by the Warburton Pete Rodriguez 4MC top but its just not surgical steel which seems to give me some technical/health advanatges. I'm not sure I want any round rims anymore now the Wedge has got going.

What started me thinking was the so called "disadvantage" of having to check you set the piece the right way up in the horn every time - for me that really revealed an issue with reliable placement and slipping to the right. Also too much left arm force - the Wedge rim encourages a low pressure seal, even on the fatter Gabriel rim. You cannot squeeze the high notes. I'm wondering what this could do for a beginner.

[oxleyk]

Hello Wedgies,

I'm interested in trying a Wedge. Everything I've read about it fits perfectly with what I've recently been working toward with my embouchure. Where do I start? I'm an amateur hobbyist and play in a community band. I currently play a Curry 7BC which I like a lot. What would be a logical choice for a Wedge? Should I stay with a similar rim and cup size or is small better? What is a good general purpose backbore? Should I go with Wedge or Warburton? I'll probably stay with the brass/silver. As much as I'd like to try the stainless the price is over what I'd like to spend.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Happy New Year!
Kent

[razeontherock]

Kent - try the same size you're on now, 7BC. The C has an entirely different meaning than Curry's, so Dave would probably have you try the 7B (no cushion rim) as well. The "cushion" aspect of the rim has nothing at all to do with any such thing like that from anybody else, so don't let that throw you. Or maybe you'd prefer the 7CC and 7C? I play an A cup on his cushioned rim, and can still get plenty bright enough up top, but the cup really doesn't like to focus above about a high E. That's just me, but I'm thinking that the B cup may be deeper than what you're on, sound nice, and be at least as easy to play as what you're on, and would have to have better upper register than what I'm on. (Which I consider a cornet mpc.) This switch has totally revolutionized my playing.

The Warburton backbores have more selection but honestly, 1 size difference (say from 7 to is SO small you'll mainly just drive yourself nuts with placebo effect. The Wedge, either medium or large, will not only likely be good but has some mass which does in fact help hold things together at volume. You did say you play in a community band, right? Have you ever had your gap checked? Might be worthwhile before ordering, but Curry's gap is pretty standard and if it works for you and your horn, Wedge's standard gap should also work. If a check shows possible improvement, Wedge's b/b makes that easy!

Dave is great to work with; if he suggests something other than this go with that. Or if it turns out you need a different rim size I bet you'll find him very accommodating. I find switching back and forth from Wedge to non-Wedge no problem, I just don't want to. They play that well, and if you like the Curry rim I think you'll enjoy the Wedge rim.