Has anyone heard of Wedge mouthpieces?

[Tubadork]

Hey,
so I know these are mostly trumpet mouthpiece and one trombone mouthpiece, but one of my old tuba students came up to me and told me that he sent his mouthpiece out to this guy and he altered his rim and replated it. The idea is that the rim is not flat at all:

don't know if anyone else has tried this to their mouthpiece or even thinks the idea is a good one.
http://www.wedgemouthpiece.com/index.html" target="_blank
thanks,
Bill

[imperialbari]

Art Hovey has a similar Lexan mouthpiece from a different maker.

Klaus

[TexTuba]

I tried the trombone and it was just AWFUL for me! The same sentiment was felt by my trumpet buddies. I don't know if they'll be coming to TMEA again.

[iiipopes]

H. N. White tried it in the 1930's and it never caught on.

[averagejoe]

Thanks iiipopes, interesting bit of history!

[iiipopes]

You're welcome.

[wr4]

iiipopes wrote:

H. N. White tried it in the 1930's and it never caught on.

Dali's Persistence of Memory was 1931. Was there something in the water?

dali.JPG

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[Mike Finn]

iiipopes wrote:

H. N. White tried it in the 1930's and it never caught on.

Dali's Persistence of Memory was 1931. Was there something in the water?

Hmm... that would have been about the same time that my grandfather modified his cornet mpc.

[DrDave]

Hello,

Since there seems to be some interest in the Wedge I thought I would join the discussion.

The Wedge is actually quite different from the historical models shown above. It is quite true that there have been oval mouthpieces in the past, some with sloping rims. They do bear a superficial resemblance to the Wedge. However, the slope of the rim in the long side of the oval was oriented in the opposite direction to the Wedge. The intention of the design as described by some of the original patents was to maximize surface contact between the mouthpiece and the lips. In addition, the Wedge mouthpiece is oriented in the opposite fashion to other oval mouthpieces, with the long axis vertical. So despite the superficial resemblance the design and performance characteristics of the Wedge are actually directly opposite those of early oval and irregular models.

At this point we have been in business for about 2 years, selling mostly trumpet, and a few trombone mouthpieces. We do offer a two week trial period and a money back guarantee with a return rate of about 10%. We are currently selling about 60 mouthpieces a month after returns, so although the Wedge is not for everyone we do have hundreds of satisfied customers who find that despite it's unconventional appearance the Wedge is a significant improvement over conventional rims.

We started doing trombone mouthpieces as a custom job a few months ago and have only one endorsing artist on trombone - Gene Watts of the Canadian Brass. Only a handful have been sold. None have been returned. Tuba mouthpieces are not yet in production. The tuba mouthpiece mentioned in the first post was provided to Bill's student as a beta tester when he contacted me after seeing a Wedge being played by a local trombone player.

I have maintained contact with Bill's student, who continues to play the Wedge since starting on it in March of this year. With his permission I am posting his comments from 3 separate email messages below. The most recent was sent a few days ago.

"I got the mouthpiece on Friday before a concert that I played in, and I could instantly tell the difference between my tone with it and my tone with my back-up piece. It sounded much more refined and symphonic. No complaints so far. I will keep you posted on my testing. Thanks!!!

The muscles that you build by playing the Wedge cushion your lips and take away from the impact of the rim. Its kind of like rolling with a punch in boxing, where the wedge is like a boxer who rolls with the punch, taking the impact over time and spreading out the force, and a traditional mouthpiece is like a boxer who takes it head on, with all of the force getting applied at an instant. The wedge allows for longer pain-free playtime, not to mention the audible differences- darker more refined sound with not necessarily higher or lower note ranges, but a greater accuracy in finding those notes, and a much better sound at those extremes.

After playing on it for a few months i have noticed a much better tone quality coming out of the horn. I can tell that my embouchure is stronger and I'm able to hold lower notes longer. I told my former private instructor about it and he was intrigued. I told him to contact you for more information so you'll probably get an email from him in the coming days (bill pritchard). He plays professionally with the Midtown Brass and teaches tuba and euphonium lessons on the side. He could give you very good reviews and promote your business to other brass players. Just a heads up. Thank you again for the mouthpiece! I am very satisfied and have no regrets and will continue to promote your business."

Although this is clearly not definitive evidence that the tuba line will be a success the observations in the above emails are typical of players using Wedge on trumpet and trombone, so I am encouraged.

If anyone is interested in learning more about the Wedge you will find a very long running thread on the Trumpet Herald Forum at http://www.trumpetherald.com/forum/view ... hp?t=65641" target="_blank

This thread contains 477 posts with impartial feedback from players regarding the mouthpiece and my business ethic. You will find that I have always recognized that the Wedge is not a mouthpiece for every player, and that my motivation in developing the Wedge has always been to improve the enjoyment of brass playing, initially my own, and now the enjoyment of others. I continue to make my living practicing medicine, which is why I have the luxury of some rather unconventional business practices intended to provide outstanding service to the brass playing community.

I am happy to answer any questions and engage in friendly discussion about the Wedge here or by email. It is not my intention to use this forum as a means of advertising, so I will not post again except to answer a question or offer a comment where appropriate. I would be very happy to have members of this forum try a Wedge for our two week trial period and to post their candid feedback here so that your members could form an informed opinion based on first hand experience with the product.

Cheers,
Dave Harrison (Dr Dave)
Wedge Mouthpieces
drdave@wedgemouthpiece.com" target="_blank

[UTSAtuba]

Kudos to Dave.

In my opinion, it's rare to see representatives give feedback on a topic concerning their product(s).

[scottw]

"I would be very happy to have members of this forum try a Wedge for our two week trial period and to post their candid feedback here so that your members could form a"

I would be interested in trying this 'piece, if it could be arranged.Aside from the rim, what types of bowl/funnel, back bore, etc. does your creation utilize?

[DrDave]

Hello,

One other forum member sent me a PM indicating interest in trying a Wedge. Below is my response.

A tuba Wedge is made by re-machining the rim of any tuba mouthpiece to have a Wedge contour. I can therefore make a tuba Wedge that is identical to your current mouthpiece, except that the rim will be different. This allows you to assess the effect of the rim while maintaining all other factors constant.

In order to do this I need a sample of your current piece. I would digitally scan the mouthpiece and produce a computer model of a Wedge rim based on the dimensions. A CNC milling machine is then used to machine the rim on the original mouthpiece, and the entire mouthpiece is re-plated. The base mouthpiece can be supplied by you, or I can purchase it myself. Since you do not know if the rim will be to your liking it makes sense for me to buy the mouthpiece. That way if you did not like it I would simply refund your payment for the modification and original mouthpiece and offer the mouthpiece for sale to another player. Even though this would be a custom job you should not have to incur an expense for a mouthpiece you do not like.

Eventually I may change to a line of my own tuba blanks, as I have done for trumpet mouthpieces. This was an important transition in the trumpet line, since introducing the lateral dip in the rim does take some volume from the cup. My experience with larger volume mouthpieces like trombone and tuba is that the relative volume loss is offset by the playing characteristics of the rim, which produces more core in the sound, so that the volume loss does not result in an appreciably brighter sounding mouthpiece. At this point using existing mouthpieces as the "blank" allows greater flexibility to meet the needs of players. It is more labor intensive and less profitable to make each piece a custom job in this way, but for now that is how I will do it. If players would prefer a Wedge tuba piece from a new Wedge blank we may go that route eventually.

Please let me know if I can answer any other questions. You can PM, email or call me on the toll free line published the Wedge website to arrange details. I do not want to clutter the forum space with information that will not be of interest to other players, so I will follow the lead of forum members regarding what we deal with on and off line. I am happy to provide information on costs, but do not wish to abuse the privilege of participation on this forum by dealing directly with commercial issues on line, so private communication might be better unless there is a specific request by a forum member to provide details here.

Cheers,
Dave

[Chen]

FINALLY!