| I stand corrected.
The new site actually promotes using the Monette mouthpiece with other horns. I am fairly sure on the old site it said differently, but maybe I misread it.
If one was to be cynical about the acclimation guide, you could say that if you have a problem with a Monette mouthpiece, you are to blame, not the mouthpiece. No returns! What a perfect marketing tool. Very expensive mouthpieces, with no return because if they don't work, you are not acclimated. Cha-ching!
Q. My upper register is flat when I try a Monette mouthpiece. Why is this?
A. Monette mouthpieces offer dramatically improved intonation, as long as the player stops adjusting in registers that no longer require adjustment!.
OK, so is Monette the only mouthpiece that has a correct high register? How did anyone play in tune with a good tone if they had to strain to get to the pitches. What if you buy a horn with a reverse leadpipe? My experience is that those higher pitches come into tune very easily with a reverse leadpipe. Will you now play sharp with a Monette?
Ferguson now plays a Monette, I don't think he is going to keep his head over his spine as the acclimation guide suggests.
I guess I shouldn't be so critical of them since I have never played one. The policy strikes me wrong. I buy any other mouthpiece they give you up to 45 days to try it. I recently bought a Rudy Muck and an Asymmetric. Very "different" mouthpieces. I had 45 days to try them and I could still return them.
If I do buy a Monette, it will be off of eBay (there are many listed usually, I guess some never get acclimated) where I can resell it later if I don't get acclimated. Or perhaps a Kanstul copy.
M&C |