John Heckathorn

What are the differences between the feel/playing of gold plated rim mouthpieces and normal, stock ones? I'm going to be purchasing a new Bach 3C, and I wanted to know the pros/cons of gold plated rims.

Thanks

cmcdougall

The gold has a slicker feeling compared to silver.

loweredsixth

Gold kinda feels softer on the lips (although that may just be all mental.)

BradHarrison

I have found gold to be softer but I prefer the grip of silver. I didn't find any noticable sound difference between gold and silver plated pieces.

Alex Yates

I have played gold for a long, long time. However, my piccolo mouthpiece is silver plated just because I have not had a custom one made yet. I notice the gold stays warmer a bit longer and it doesn't feel as "cold" as the silver when I first put it to my lips. I could be using the wrong adjectives here because it is related to the smoother feeling vs. the more "gripping" feeling of silver as well. The gold does feel nice and smooth when first applied to the lips. It is definitely a personal preference thing.

joshuasullins

I have played gold for a long time as well. Silver is not as smooth as gold, and silver grips more. Gold rims/mouthpieces have varying mixtures of gold and silver. The more silver is in the mix, the more the mouthpiece will grip. I personally like a lot of grip, but I use a gold Monette BL3, and it seems to work fine. In fact, my Ingram Marc. mouthpiece actually has too much grip. It is entirely silver and I find that it can cut into my lip after a few days on the road, so my Monette is a good balance I suppose.

~Joshua

a_legaspi

For those of you that play on gold rim mouthpieces, don't you guys feel that the mpc begins to sort of slide around after playing a long gig. I get this feeling with my gold rim mpc, I really did not notice it until a few months ago when I was on a quintet gig and had been playing for a long time, I felt that sucker moving around on my lips, it almost felt like a ship on rough seas. Any comments appreciated.
Ariel
P.S. I switched to a GR 67LX mpc months ago and am now back to my gold cup and rim 1C mpc I just feel that it gives me more room for my upper lip to vibrate, it seemed a bit harder with my 67LX, who knows I might switch back in a few months, well I did take about a month of the horn in november because I had to attend to a family emergency in Mexico but hey who knows.

trickg

YES! For years I had played a Schilke 14A4a and at one point I had the inner cup and the rim gold plated. Then I switched to a Schilke 14A4(c) and I played it for about 6 weeks before I took it to a friend of mine who does plating and had him do the same thing on that mouthpiece....

And it totally changed the way it felt AND played. It was like I lost the grip that the silver provided that made it easy to play. At this point I have gotten used to it, but if I ever have to replace it for any reason, I'll probably leave the replacement totally silver plated.

Dan Millheim

As far as your lips are concerned: Playing a silver rim is like kissing your cousin while playing a gold rim is like kissing your wife*!








*It should be noted that I am very fond of my wife ha.

trickg

Yeah, well Jerry Lee Lewis was very fond of his cousin.