Hybrid porcelain/metal mouthpieces

[Highpitch]

I've seen these on both euph & tuba, mostly in German groups.

Does anyone know the deal on them? Interchangeable parts? Easier on the chops?

Dennis

[MikeW]

I've run searches here in Tubenet and outside in Google. Can't see much about porcelain or ceramic mouthpieces. Are you sure these are not delrin rims (I think Doug Elliot and Houser mouthpieces both offer these). Or the old DEG astro-cup nylon cup on a brass shank?

[Highpitch]

Maybe it was just an effect of the lederhosen ....

[bort]

Porcelain? Hope you never drop it!

[pgym]

I've run searches here in Tubenet and outside in Google. Can't see much about porcelain or ceramic mouthpieces. Are you sure these are not delrin rims (I think Doug Elliot and Houser mouthpieces both offer these). Or the old DEG astro-cup nylon cup on a brass shank?

I've seen porcelain mouthpieces in a museum (Old Salem in Winston-Salem, NC, I think), but not "in the wild."

Ceramic mouthpieces show up occasionally on ebay and on tromboneforum.org: http://tromboneforum.org/index.php?topic=52025.0" target="_blank

As to why porcelain/ceramic: http://themouthpieceproject.wordpress.c ... outhpiece/" target="_blank

[Donn]

You can enjoy some of these same virtues with couple coats of fingernail polish on the rim of whatever mouthpiece you like.

• OK, no one uses fingernail polish in tank armor, but it probably does take up some of the impact when you drop it, and then you can just clean it off with acetone and re-apply. You could even rehabilitate an already damaged rim, if the damage is minor or can be patched up somehow.
• Hypo-allergenic.
• Insulates your face from the cold mouthpiece.
• Feels good.
• Sounds the same, plus or minus whatever difference from friction of the respective materials.

The last one is a bogus claim for the ceramic side, anyway. A mouthpiece is tonally inert, regardless of its crystalline structure or whatever. Its working properties are a function of its shape, which is sort of the problem with ceramic - you're stuck with whatever limited set of shapes may be offered. The route I could see working for this project, is if they could take brass (or whatever) prototypes and copy them in ceramic - like I suppose Houser can do with stainless steel. If ceramic meant lots of interesting and reasonably priced choices in rim/cup/throat etc., you'd have a contender.

In the hybrid, is the shank the metal part?

[Highpitch]

Yes, what I saw was apparently a porcelain rim with a gold cup & shank.

Almost reminds one of a mini-toilet....albeit an expensive one.

Dennis

[pgym]

The last one is a bogus claim for the ceramic side, anyway. A mouthpiece is tonally inert, regardless of its crystalline structure or whatever. Its working properties are a function of its shape, which is sort of the problem with ceramic - you're stuck with whatever limited set of shapes may be offered.

Are you suggesting that two mouthpieces of identical shape will sound the same, regardless of differences in the physical and mechanical properties (composition, density, elasticity, rigidity, plasticity, ductility, etc.) of the material used to make them?

[Donn]

Within reason, yes. I mean, I don't think a mouthpiece made of vegetable shortening would be a valid test, for example, but I'd go with any material that's otherwise convenient for mouthpiece manufacture.

It turns out to be somewhat tangential to the present thread, though, since it turns out that the mouthpieces in question have only a trivial amount of ceramic, on the rim only, so it wouldn't be making much of a tonal contribution in any case. There are other threads where the more general question has been discussed at length, I'm pretty sure.

[peter birch]

I've seen these on both euph & tuba, mostly in German groups.

Does anyone know the deal on them? Interchangeable parts? Easier on the chops?

Dennis

this is very old technology, my local repair tech was renovating an 1890 Distin cornet that had it original mouthpiece that had a ceramic rim

http://www.horn-u-copia.net/mouthpieces ... hpiece.jpg" target="_blank

[Charlie C Chowder]

I have one that came with a old Olds trombone built in LA. It has a one peice ivory cup and rim that screws into a sliverplated cone with shank. It sounds very good even with my tuba lips.


Charlie C. Chowder