horncups.com

hello,

I have been experimenting with classical era mouthpieces as I outlined in the thread 'size of bore'. I have reproduced a profile you can download from the Edinburgh University website - this is nearly a simple cone, though slightly convex overall, has a straight portion at the small end and a bore of 6mm at that point. It was clearly a design for low horn players as the tone in the low range is big, but the effor required to get the upper harmonics is quite extreme. Knowing that high horn players used a mouthpiece with a smaller volume - more cup shaped - I made a second mandrel. This has a 5.5 bore at the small end and a profile that changes from a fast cone (a cup in effect) to a slower cone after about 15mm. Today I finished making a mouthpiece from this second mandrel and it is quite interesting to play.

It has a reasonable tone in the mid range, though it is 'thinner' sounding than the very deep funnel. The upper harmonics are generally quite easy to produce - about the same as the phc24 I have used in my hand horn. The significant difference from a modern design seems to be that it feels easier to slide from one harmonic to another and that it is easier to minimise the differenc ebetween open and covered notes (for me anyway). Also, harmonics 11 and 12 are much easier to produce than with any other mouthpiece I have tried on that instrument.

What I would really like would be to borrow one or two original sheet metal mouthpieces from that era to copy; anybody got one they would lend?

Best wishes

tom