Mouthpiece Spotlight: Vincent Bach Megatone 1-1/2A | Why do I use large mouthpieces?
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- Опубліковано 5 жов 2024
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It's about time I reviewed the mouthpiece I have used for 90% of my playing for more than a year by this point. This is not a standard Bach size, but if you're interested, the 1-1/2B is worth checking out. Also consider the Yamaha or Schilke 16E4 for a similar size/depth.
I understand that some of what I say in this video about playing large mouthpieces is somewhat controversial in the trumpet community, but please realize that my chops and my approach to playing are not the same as yours. I am not judging you for playing a smaller mouthpiece; I am simply explaining why I personally do best on and prefer larger ones.
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Man......your Charlier is on point!
Thank you! It's got a long ways to go but I'm glad you think so!
Nice explanation! Bach did occasionally put out oddball mouthpieces. I have a Bach 12M (?) tuba mouthpiece in the collection.
Thanks Paul! To be honest I'm not familiar with tuba mouthpiece sizes beyond the 18 that comes with basically every beginner/intermediate tuba I've ever seen.
What I know about Bach mouthpieces and I have played on a 1, and 1c for many years and then a 2c and now a 3c. As far as I know the number 1 or 2 without a letter after it donates an A which is the deepest then B, C, D and E which is the shallowest.
Wow, Bach 1 is super large
I play on a 1B, 1 is far too large for me. I don't like the rim on 1C
Nice video Sam! Keep it up
Thanks Nathaniel!
Most the time, I just try to balance what mouthpiece size I can tolerate vs what the horn can tolerate. Both matter. You need a mouthpiece that's big enough to let your lips move around without ruining intonation and shallow enough to give you a full range without ruining sound. You'd think that "bucket AF" would be the way to go for everything, but not every instrument will tolerate a mouthpiece as big (or as small) as you want. Cylindrical instruments are more forgiving. Small profile conical are the absolute worst, but very rewarding when you find that sweet spot. Yes, you can muck around with backbore geometry to force the matter if you want to spend $1000s on a 4-piece mouthpiece. Not a good idea.
17mm is nothing for Trumpet. Studs in the baroque era were playing higher on 19.5mm mouthpieces, but that's crazy stuff. Still, even a chump like me can play 2.5 octaves on a 17.4mm cup. Just don't use a deeper cup than you can handle and it's no big deal. For a real challenge, use the jHorn soprano cup on a real Trumpet. ~18.75mm!
Student Horn mouthpieces are garbage. I got some crummy Holton mpc with a purchase...16.3mm. Seriously? Horn plays sloppily but still in tune up to 19.5mm. 17.5mm is a pretty good size for that range. No reason to be playing something that is 1mm undersized in any application. That's why we have closets full of alto things that all sound drastically better than the stupid Marching Mellophone.
Meanwhile, Trombone and Euphonium mouthpieces exploded at some point. I guess when British Euphoniums became popular? The old default Conn 2 is smaller than a 12C. The Conn 3A is like a v-cup Schilke 40! I guess whatever works. I feel like the 24mm and under range is perfectly fine, but I'm biased in every way possible. I don't have the embouchure for 26mm, I hate the sound of big tubby Euphs and Trombones that try to match them, and all but one of my tenors won't play with anything that big.
Your comments are always extremely informative, and this one definitely has a lot of good info, but with all due respect, most high school trumpet players I know are playing mouthpieces that are 16.5mm or smaller in ID. I do understand the 17mm diameter is almost a default in the orchestral world. In my case, the total volume is increased due to the A cup, which balances my medium-bore horn pretty well. I do see what you mean though; my horn doesn't handle a Schilke 24 too well and the pitch tendencies are miles off on some notes.
@@SamuelPlaysBrass Yeah, I don't really consider it a crime to play high Bb brass with a smaller mouthpiece. If a 1 1/2 anything is the biggest thing you can buy, it's going to seem pretty big. But European players are definitely rolling with much larger sizes. JK's Kölnerform (old timey repro) Trumpet models are in the range of 16.8 to 17.4mm, and the modern series goes up to 17.6mm (yeehaw!). Supposedly that's something to do with the difference in rotary and perinet Trumpets, but I doubt it. Probably just some weird cultural thing that has stuck. It'd be neat to get a hold of a really old Vincent Bach 1C and figure out just how big "biggest" used to be, but I'm not that rich.
RE: sizing of Bach’s old 1C - My Corp. 1E has got to be within the ballpark of 17.5mm and it’s a very fun mouthpiece to play on, even if it can be a little taxing.
What mouthpiece(s) do you all use? Do you stick to one size or jump around based on the style of music?
(Also, I know I used the wrong intro. Sue me. I was too lazy to go back and re-edit.)
I only use a Blessing 3c
Connstellation 7CW
Used to come with Connstellation trumpets and was Conn’s top of the line for a while. Works good for me. Somewhere between a bach 2 and 2 1/2 C with a slightly larger backbore, #24 I think
@@datGuy0309 Very cool! That must be a real piece of history.
I use a Vincent Bach Megatone 3C (I know it's so original)
I use a basic vincent bach 7c lol. it's a smaller mouthpiece but tbh it feels good with my braces. I like large mouthpieces too.
The variation in the various sizes has something to do with inconsistency in any given particular model. Even with CNC technology you think they would’ve figured out that factor by now, as to quote one of my colleagues “it doesn’t look good on them as a company.”
You really would think they’d have figured it out but if anything it’s their more modern pieces that are notorious for variation. I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned it to you or on video, but I’ve got a Bach 3C that feels like about a 16.8 ID when Bach claims they should be 16.3-16.5 (different sources give different measurements)
@@SamuelPlaysBrass you mentioned that in the video. To give some well known player examples, Jazz player Carl Saunders plays a 10.5C that’s really around a 5C. Trent Austin played a 1.5C for years then was told it measured around also a 5C. Whenever I teach students (pre covid) I’d tell the parents to find a Mt Vernon era 7C on eBay. That era is far superior in consistency compared to the modern pieces.
I bought a Monette B4S S2Its a MV Bach 3c
I have no idea how you play that high on that mouthpiece and in general. I’ve been playing for over 30 years and I still can’t play much higher than a high C
For me the answer has always been a narrower, faster airstream via compression of the lower abdomen
It works for you
Ignore the numbers on the Bach catalogue, Sam - they're almost always completely wrong.
Bach designates the 3C to be 16.3mm when most are 16.5-16.7mm and sometimes even larger than that!
They designate the 7C to be 16.20mm, but they're often 16.4-16.5mm - by no means significantly smaller than most 3C's (though with nowhere near as tolerable a rim profile, for most players).
Frankly, the Bach catalogue is a mess - and over the years, the tooling has been changed numerous times, resulting in different "periods" for these piece which can be radically different from each other.... the only way to know what you're getting is to try the exact same piece you're going to buy.
Re the throat - the throat on a megatone is a #26 unless otherwise stated (standard blank Bach pieces are #27 unless otherwise stated).
I believe that's more or less exactly what I stated in the video- I know the 3C and 7C have such a wide range of diameters that they sometimes end up being practically the same with different rim shapes, and I'm almost certain I stated the throat was a 26.
I have a 3c and its bigger than my 1.5c
You’re crazy cool dude.
Why thank you! :)
Esse é para os fortes
Sam... where you're pointing at when you say "keeping your corners tight" isn't a place you want to be adding tension (you want to be relaxed in that end-of-the-lips/cheeks area)... your "corners" in this context is referring to the corners of the buzzing surface (ie: where the outside of the rim sits, approximately) not keeping your entire lips under a state of tension.
You'll find the sound opens up even more if you can let go of that excess tension way out to the sides...
Interesting! This is very different from what I was taught but I will try it out and see if it helps.
Where can you get an A cup?
To tell you the truth, they’re pretty rare and usually only found on smaller diameters-5A, 7A, 9A, etc. This was a very lucky find for me.