PHC E taper and new smaller bore PHC cups

If your current PHC mouthpiece is not a perfect fit in the shank and you play an Alexander horn this is a good indication that a PHC E taper cup may well serve you better.

We developed the E tapers for the many players of PHC playing horns other than the Conn and Paxman instruments which were the horns PHC mouthpieces were first developed for.

Listening to and working with professional players around the world we found that some European horn players prefer a taper that is slightly different to our popular standard design. This led to us developing the PHC E taper cup.

This allows the cup to sit snugly and correctly in horns that were made to fit Alexander and some other European mouthpieces.

It was also noted that many European players also play on mouthpieces that have a smaller bore such as 4.0mm, 4.20mm & 4.50 mm.

We noticed that many Russian players are buying PHC 20, 20A & 20AX cups. Many players are reporting that if they prefer the smaller bore mouthpieces such as 20A, 20AX & 21A they can even improve their lower range and achieve a fuller sound by using 22A ,23A & 24A cups with the 4.50mm bore.

Those players using Alexander mouthpieces and entering our range on our PHC Alex 8 rim sometimes prefer to buy our PHC 4.20mm bore cups.

The taper of Alexander Horns is understood to have been designed for these smaller bore mouthpieces.

Many horn players maintain that a smaller bore seems to increase the stamina of the player.

Our research has also made it clear that the practice of altering the bore of a mouthpiece with a standard drill (a common practice) should be avoided as it increases the length of the cylindrical section between the cup and the backbore. This can have undesirable effects and should be avoided at all costs unless this work is carried out by a mouthpiece technician for a special custom purpose.