Beau Kemp

Couple of things I have been thinking about -
First, the end of my mouthpiece is not perfectly round. I guess I dropped it but I don't remember doing it. Will it being out of round affect my playing? Is there an easy way to straighten it out, without incurring damage?

This is a Schilke 14 mpc, Getzen Eterna Severinsen

Second - I don't think the mouthpiece goes all the way into the receiver. You know how you can tell where the lead pipe starts...well it doesn't look like the mpc is going in that far so there must be a gap.

Funny thing is, the Getzen 5c mouthpiece doesn't go all the way either and it came with the horn. In fact, the Getzen mpc is a tad bit shorter than the Schilke.

Will either of these issues cause problems? Thanks for ideas/suggestions

trumpet blower88

You can probably find a litle tool that you can stick in the back of the mouthpiece that will straighten it out. It just looks like a thin metal cone. We have one at my school, and it dosn't seem to cause any damnage.

I don't know what to tell you about the reciver problem though, I wouldn't thing it would make too much of a differance as long as it stays in nice and tight.

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Tootsall

Best tool for that (Leigh McK will agree with me... he suggested it) is the end of a pair of needle-nose pliers. Nice and rounded and just right for "twisting" the roundness back into the end of the shank. Just be careful and go slow.

BTW, apparently you can use the same tool to very slightly enlarge the end of a slide that's too loose! Be extra special careful on these though... much harder to replace if you muck it up. Better to do it a wee bit at a time, testing frequently; than to go too far at once and have a REAL problem. (in other words, stretching brass is easier than compressing it!)

If you are nervous and don't want to try it on your own, just pop down to ye olde repaire shoppe; they should have a tool specifically designed to take those flat spots off the end of the shank.

Your receiver (I'll guess it's an older horn?) is likely blown open a bit from having had mouthpieces jammed into it in the past. You can go to a Warburton modular mouthpiece and specify the "B" shanks (slightly larger outside diameter) or see if you can get the receiver replaced at (again) the previously-mentioned shoppe.

trickg

You've asked a couple of interesting questions.

For the first one, I would tend to think that a dent in the end of the shank of the mouthpiece is going to affect it - either be careful how you remove it, using the needle nose pliers method, buy the little tool that will fix it, have a repair tech fix it, or simply replace the mouthpiece.

Second question - Gap. This is a huge topic and while there might be some discrepancy regarding the particulars about how much or how little gap to have between the end of the mouthpiece and the end of the leadpipe in the receiver of the trumpet, most will generally agree that if you don't have an optimum gap, you can't play with maximum efficiency.

Correcting a gap issue is an interesting proposition too - just how does one go about doing it? I once had someone actually turn my mouthpiece down a bit on a lathe so that it would fit better in the horn and it made a HUGE and immediate difference in how the horn responded and played for me. Another method is to have a mouthpiece custom made for your horn. Yet another method is to have the receiver itself adjusted to your mouthpiece by an experienced brass tech.

Yet another method to try, and although it might seem a bit costly would probably be well worth it in the end, is to either buy a Bob Reeves mouthpiece that is cut for sleeves, or to have your mouthpiece cut for sleeves. That way, you have several different sleeves in incremental sizes that you can use to dial in the right gap for you, and while one sleeve might be perfect on one trumpet, a different sleeve might be the right size for something else.

Right now I'm using a Schilke Mouthpiece in a Schilke trumpet and when I spoke with Karl Hammond at Schilke a month or so ago and I asked him, he said that Schilke mouthpieces are made with Schilke receivers in mind so that the gap is already close - I have no problems with either of the Schilke mouthpieces I use.

If you do some searching online about mouthpiece gap, you are sure to find some more information that probably explains it better than I just did. Good luck!

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Patrick Gleason
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Beau Kemp

Thanks for the great replies. I'll try the needle nose plier technique and let you know.

As far as gap is concerned, my instincts say that there should not be any gap at all... I mean if some horns have a reverse tuning slide so the air flows more smoothly, I would think having a gap at the receiver would be much more detrimental to the air's flow/turbulence.

Sleeves - I don't even know what a sleeve is or how it works. Anyone care to elaborate?

JJMDestino

There should be a gap between the end of the shank and the begining of the leadpipe. Check out the link below to GR Tech mouthpieces. In the mouthpiece tutorial they explain gap issues, as does the Bob Reeves sight.

http://www.grmouthpieces.com/tutorial.htm

Justin

JJMDestino

Here is the Bob Reeves link, lots of good info about gap.

http://www.bobreeves.com/products/mo...ment/index.htm

Justin

tpter1

I have a mouthpiece reamer that I use to fix such dents. It's a sort of conical shaped piece of metal, about 3 inches long, with a T handle at the top. Fits all mouthpiece shanks from horn to tuba.

And I agree on all counts with getting the gap checked out.

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trickg

Renold Schilke once believed that no gap was optimal gap too, but careful study, experimentation and analysis on the subject showed that it is actually better to have a bit of a gap - exactly why I'm not so sure, but it does make a difference.

On the subject of Reeves' Sleeves, basically, the mouthpiece is cut on a lathe and fitted with rubber 'O' rings. Then depending on the horn, various sleeves can then be snapped onto the mouthpiece that allow for a different fit in the leadpipe.

Here is a picture of a mouthpiece that has been cut for sleeves, as well as a couple of sleeves: (Note, this piture has been linked to from the Reeves website)



Anyway, like said, the sleeves are sized incrementally on the exterior which allows for a deeper or shallower fit in the leadpipe, thus dialing in the proper gap.

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Patrick Gleason
email me at: trickg1@hotmail.com

"What we do in life echoes in eternity"
"At my signal, unleash hell."
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brian moon

The mouthpiece repair tool works pretty well but it is meant to be used with a rawhide mallet. The pliers will work if you have a super good touch but anything that grips the inside can scratch it quite easily.

It all depends on how out of round the mouthpiece is. Slight imperfections might not be noticed. The trianglular to pentagonal shapes that I see on students' mouthpieces make a large difference.

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