TromboneChat

Hi, everyone. I'm posting a question. And on the YouTube channel of Griego, Ian Bousfield uses a rim made of silicone?(similar of that car warps) material. Is there a place where I can proceed with such plating?
And I also post a picture of the mouthpiece that Ian Bousfield actually uses.

You can't plate silicon. You could maybe coat with silicon, but I've never heard of a silicon coating. You could coat with a silicone (similar to what's used in some slide lubes, but designed to be a coating). Maybe someone else here knows what Bousfield uses.

Could very well be delrin - I believe this is what Griego uses when silver or gold plated brass doesn’t work for some players (for allergy or preference reasons, I’d think). Greg black, bob reeves, and some other makers use delrin as well. It’s a separate rim rather than plated onto brass

I have no idea what Bousfield uses, but just looking at the example pic, it reminded me of this: https://www.diamondbrass.com/.

I’m guessing it’s a screw rim piece with a rim made of whatever that material is. People can do that.

Looks like black Delrin but it’s hard to tell. I’ve recently picked up some Greg Black pieces with Delrin rims and I really like it. It’s pretty grippy but also soft feeling and you can feel the bite of the rim better than you can on Lexan.

*edit* I should have watched the whole video before commenting. Not a Delrin rim! My experience with Delrin rims still stand for anyone who stumbles across this comment (:

PDH wrote: Sun Jul 20, 2025 10:36 amAnd on the YouTube channel of Griego, Ian Bousfield uses a rim made of silicone?(similar of that car warps) material.

Can you post a link to the original video?

Not one mention of rim material or plating in that video.

Yeah... I spent time working with Ian on the proportions he talks about and then he had Griego make it.

All the (Griego) Bousfield mouthpieces in the video appear to be standard silver-plated.
Some appear to have darker rims because of shadows / camera angle, I think.
No magic there.

Rather cavalier of Ian to learn about the benefits of larger-diameter rims / shallower cups from Doug Elliott and then have Christan Griego manufacture these with Bousfield's name on them. Perhaps some credit is due to Doug.
Ain't marketing grand?

Yes. Definitely no mention of plating, but someone left a question in the comments and Griego left an answer.

I had to look it up to be sure I was remembering correctly.

Silicon is an element. Combined with oxygen, it becomes silicon dioxide. Certainly you can make a mouthpiece out of glass.

Silicone is a nonorganic elastomeric polymer, so basically soft plastic or rubber (lots of variations possible from liquids to solids.) I have a silicone mouthpiece insert that came free with my jHorn. Actually there are three so you can choose the size. But one of them is more in tune than the others. It's not IN tune, but it's closer.

timothy42b wrote: Mon Jul 21, 2025 6:38 am I had to look it up to be sure I was remembering correctly.

Silicon is an element. Combined with oxygen, it becomes silicon dioxide. Certainly you can make a mouthpiece out of glass.

Silicone is a nonorganic elastomeric polymer, so basically soft plastic or rubber (lots of variations possible from liquids to solids.) I have a silicone mouthpiece insert that came free with my jHorn. Actually there are three so you can choose the size. But one of them is more in tune than the others. It's not IN tune, but it's closer.

Silicon is a non-metal so it cannot be plated. It could be deposited from a vapor, but this temperature would be possibly too high for the brass underneath.

OP showed a black mouthpiece, which is the color I would expect if the mouthpiece were coated in silicon, but I'm skeptical about this for the reason stated above.

Silicones can be made pretty hard. I used screen printing squeegees of 95 durometer (Shore A) which is like a pretty hard rubber. Getting silicone to stick to a brass mouthpiece may be a challenge (although there are probably techniques).

Again, I don't know exactly what Bousfield plays on. You'd have to ask him or Christan Griego.

Here's the commentary from the YouTube video:

@danielthomas7629
2 years ago
What's the black plating that Ian has on his mouthpiece?

@griegomouthpieces4760
2 years ago
He uses a wrap material made from silicone that's similar to car wraps to keep the silver plate off of his face. Without the wrap Ian can get swelling with a slight metal allergy.

Some sort of a shrink wrap?

In the video, Ian also plays several shiny silver-plated mouthpieces (un-"wrapped") which seem to cause him no problem. So his allergy to silver plate must indeed be slight.

Perhaps someone who knows more could elaborate.

There's a self-fusing silicone tape that's often used to waterproof antenna connections or to insulate electrical connections. It's stretchy and can be put on thin. I wonder if it could be applied in such a way to stick to a mouthpiece rim!? Typically you would need a bunch of wraps to get it to stick.

I've heard him mention that he had a "sticker" on his mouthpiece rim. I've tried to use vinyl wrap left over from a car install for a mouthpiece with no plating/ raw brass. I couldn't get it to stay stuck-on even after prepping the surface. Moisture would always seep under and cause it to lift.

Posaunus wrote: Mon Jul 21, 2025 12:04 amRather cavalier of Ian to learn about the benefits of larger-diameter rims / shallower cups from Doug Elliott and then have Christan Griego manufacture these with Bousfield's name on them. Perhaps some credit is due to Doug.
Ain't marketing grand?

Honestly it's rather rife in the business, and always a disappointment. I've even seen it literally happen on this very forum.