Changed taste or advanced abilities? (Re)discovering a mouthpiece

[shider]

Did my taste change? Or did I change? The Mouthpiece itself can’t have changed!
I want to share my personal experience with a potential change of mouthpieces. This post only represents my own view and I don’t claim it to be universal in any way.

So, here’s the context:
I’m an amateur. I play the bass trombone in my local community orchestra, conduct a youth orchestra and since last autumn I play bass trb. in a local (british style) brass band.
For the last months I wasn’t very happy with my playing and I felt my mouthpiece (currently a Griego 2) was somewhat hindering me. Since I have a small (my girlfriend would say large) collection of Bass Trb. Mouthpieces I sat down(not literally, I did it standing) and tried a few. Yesterday after teaching I set up a recording device (a Zoom hand-recorder) and played the same excerpt on all mouthpieces after playing a few long tones on each one. After shuffling the recordings, so I didn’t know which was which (I stated in the recording which mpc I played on after the excerpt) I listened back to them.

Involved mouthpieces:
(I didn’t buy a Mpc. specially for this tryout and got all of them (except the Giddings) used from Facebook or eBay)
• Denis Wick Heritage 2NAL
• Griego 2
• Griego 1
• Giddings&Webster NY-O
• Marcinkiewicz EBT1 Bill Reichenbach

My findings:

Denis Wick Heritage 2NAL:
o Was my daily driver for about 2 years, before the Griego 2. I got this 2 years after I started bass trombone and thought I needed something fancy now (it has a gold plated rim and cup).. But I was satisfied with it for a while.
o Tends to get a very bright sound, great high range (it’s the smallest out of the tested) and decent low range. Good flexibility through the registers due to the thin rim, let’s me change the sound from a dark velvety bass sound (that needs a lot of work) to a cutting/focused sound when it’s pushed.
o I quickly remembered though what led me to change from that one in the past: the gold plating gets very slippery when wet and I feel I need a little bite, so the mpc. stays put unless I want/need to shift its position on my face. Also it gets very very bright which I don’t want to be automatically when I play a bit louder.

Griego 2:
o Got this one from eBay after shopping around, looking for a different Mouthpiece from the 2NAL. Bought it, tried it, kept it.
o Nice sound, a good core to it. Decent range (nothing special), but lacks flexibility and the pedal notes don’t really satisfy my expectations, but it is what I am used to right now. I feel it forces my sound down a very narrow road, I can’t freely color it and that and the low range difficulties led to this test.
o I play this for about 2 years now and developed greatly in that time, but now I feel it limiting for the sort of playing and sound I want/have to do/produce.

Griego 1:
o I got this piece after being basically satisfied with the Griego 2, but I somewhat thought I needed to go bigger, to get easy (instant) low range.. Didn’t work out and I stayed on the 2.
o Very woofy, lacks core, low range is exceptional, but high range goes very flat (yes, I know: I lack the strength for that big a mouthpiece). Also a very specific sound the griego pieces seem to enforce on me

Giddings&Webster NY-O:
o Got this one from Facebook because I was always interested to try stainless steel and Giddings and because it was at a good price. Didn’t play that one for any significant amount of time though.
o Soundwise even worse (for me) than the Griego 1. I played this one in rehearsal with the community band last week and was done for after an hour. I can blast low notes on it like a maniac, but the cost in loosing intonation in the “high” range (starting from above middle c) is very high indeed. I would have to put in a huge amount of practice to make this my daily driver and I don’t know if I need a metaphorical bus for that.. The stainless steel is somewhat of a novelty thing but this piece really feels like bringing a canon for bird hunting.. I can’t control it.

Marcinkiewicz EBT1 (Bill Reichenbach)
o I got this one from Facebook aswell.. I don’t really remember why, I think it was the name Bill Reichenbach and the impossibly difficult name of the maker. I tested It a few times after getting it, but it didn’t strike me as anything special back then.
o But now this piece hit me hard! I didn’t expect much because of my previous experience with it. Playing long notes, I felt I could do with them (soundwise) whatever I wanted.. Producing a dark velvet bass tone, enveloping everything and directly going to a piercing sound for when I need to cut through the hole band or bring out something without I being only louder than everyone else. Surprisingly, aside from the tonal possibilities, it opened up or solidified my range in both directions.. I could safely hit high notes I normally struggle with and I could also play pedal tones which don’t normally speak for me! I was really dumbfounded by that! Paired with increased flexibility through different registers I’m now waiting to discover a potential drawback lurking just around the corner.. I suspect it might be my endurance, since I didn’t test that yet. But: that’s something I can fix relatively easy.

Conclusion:
I might have found a new favorite in the EBT1! Going off Stats, it’s no small mouthpiece, but it feels more comfortable in the high range and down low and I sure as hell won’t complain about that! The added flexibility tonally and considering range are also really nice.
I will give this piece a go for now, seeing if it keeps these characteristics or if it was all in my head. And if it doesn’t work out, I still have my Griego 2 I can come back to.

If you had any similar stories I would love to read them! I feel it’s similar to how our tastes in food and drinks change over time, the same is true for music and the equipment we use to produce it.

Greetings,
shider

[GBP]

Mouthpiece choice can be very complicated, especially if one plays different horns with different people, different venues with different ensembles. I have found for me, that each horn that I have tends to want different mouthpieces, even though all of my horns are bass trombones and are the same brand, Edwards. I used to use one mouthpiece for everything and am not sure when I moved away from that. It is why I never sell mouthpieces that have worked for me before. I think that possibly conditions might return that made that piece work in the past.

[Doug Elliott]

Sometimes it's that you can tell the difference in ways you couldn't before.

[blast]

For someone with your limited experience, your observations are very astute. You have pretty much given an accurate picture of each of those pieces. The Reichenbach may work out well for you. If there is an issue it will be endurance as that piece has a thin rim, but that may well suit you.
Good luck,

Chris

[Bach5G]

Hmmmm, maybe I’ll dig out my Teele and have a go.