TromboneChat

Hi everyone,

I'm mainly a bass bone player but I've been asked to play tenor trombone a few times lately and figured it's a good excuse to get some practice on it. I'll be on a large bore tenor and am looking for some suggestions for mouthpieces that would work well after coming from a big bass mouthpiece.

I usually use a 1.5G, which feels pretty small compared to the DE 114/M/M10 I use on bass but I figured I should be using a more tenor sized mouthpiece. 6.5AL, 5G, and 4G all feel really small and I'm not sure if it'd be worth trying to get used to them for the couple times a month I'd have to play tenor, or find something closer to my bass piece that would still be appropriate.

Any advise is appreciated! I've only ever played tenor trombone for a few months when I first started playing 8 years ago, so I've been firmly I bass territory for quite some time!

Griego Alessi (Artist now, of course) 1C or 1D is a very solid choice for bass players

XT 104, 105, or 106 rim, probably the Narrow or medium-Narrow version, with an XT G cup and G8 shank.

The Bob Reeves 4rim 5cup deep model feels great. It does not feel small at all.

I do best by keeping my bass rim. I also play an Elliott 114, and for large bore tenor I use an LB 114 with an I cup.

G seems more logical, and I have one, but with that big a rim diameter it sounds sort of quacky. I also have an E cup that I've used on bass trumpet and for messing around on a Bach 36.

I’ve been using around a 114-size rim on bass. SB110 works well for me on tenor.

I think the DE 106N would be a good place to start, and probably end. F or G cup. You can't go wrong.

It depends on what you mean by "tenor". Do you mean a 547 bore or a 508 bore? And in what capacity? Notes down on the staff or stuff above the staff? For a 547 that doesn't get above the staff, you might try something in the 2G range. In DE (from the chart on his website http://dougelliottmouthpieces.com/serie ... chart.html), that's about 106 I 8. If you can deal with the 106 rim size getting a smaller cup shouldn't be a problem. So you could play a Bach 42B on an XT 106 I 8 for stuff mainly on the staff, or a King 3B on a XT 106 E 4 for higher range. 106 is kind of a magic number rim size because it's where the XT and SB series overlap. It's as big as the XT line goes.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone!

I'll probably look into a DE setup, if I can get rid of some of my bass parts, and work from there.

What kind of tenor playing? I've covered tenor bone in brass quintet with my bass and a slightly smaller mouthpiece, but wouldn't expect that to work in a lot of other contexts.

Just quintet playing right now but I figured I should at least be decent at large bore tenor in case I need to play in other instances. I could get away with playing bass but it's a good excuse to get better at tenor

braymond21 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 23, 2024 7:01 pm Just quintet playing right now but I figured I should at least be decent at large bore tenor in case I need to play in other instances. I could get away with playing bass but it's a good excuse to get better at tenor

Don Knaube at Eastman used to play the 4th part in the Eastman Brass Quintet on a bass trombone.

BGuttman wrote: ↑Fri Feb 23, 2024 8:51 pm

braymond21 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 23, 2024 7:01 pm Just quintet playing right now but I figured I should at least be decent at large bore tenor in case I need to play in other instances. I could get away with playing bass but it's a good excuse to get better at tenor

Don Knaube at Eastman used to play the 4th part in the Eastman Brass Quintet on a bass trombone.

If there's an exception that proves the rule, that's it.

If you like the 1.5g there's no reason to change. I know bass bones that use that and significantly larger on tenor, and no one would dare argue with their sound on them.

Knaub used a Conn 72H with a Bach 1 1/2G to play the trombone part in the Eastman brass quintet. He did have a good high range, but it’s still a lightweight bright and responsive instrument and mouthpiece compared with what most players are using today. Huge mouth pieces duo bore slides wide open lead pipe double Thayer valves, modern players are less versatile painting themselves into a corner being better than ever before at playing parts intended for contra just as the cimbassi arrive and marginalize them. I call it the race to the bottom. While tenor trombonists are being taught the low range to be able to cover bass parts if necessary bass trombonist are taught to play whole notes in trombone choir.

For a bass player doubling on tenor I think there are three key questions:
- What kind of tenor playing do you want to do? I understand it's mostly brass quintet which is substantially different than lead playing in a big band
- How ambitious are you? Do you want to leave the tenor in the case and just take it out for a weekly rehearsal? Or do you plan to invest more time to really practice it? In the first case it might work best to pick equipment as close to your bass as possible. If you want to invest more time, you can and should be more specific in your equipment choice
- What works for you? If you take it seriously there are generally two ways: (Option 1) Either you choose a rim size same or close to your bass with a tenor-specifc cup and bore/backbore. This could be a Doug Elliott variant, but also numerous others offer these combinations, e.g. the Alessi or Klier mouthpieces. (Option 2) Or you pick a more classical tenor mouthpiece, e.g. a 4g or 5g size on large tenor. This is very much personal preference. For me personally it works much better to go for option 2 and I play completely different mouthpieces on bass, large tenor, small tenor and alto

I ran into the same issue, playing mostly bass. Nothing really worked. It wither sounded good but felt strange on the face and needed lots of time getting used to, or it felt ok (bigger mp) but sounded woofy and just not right.

Griego Artist Series 1E was a HUGE help.