Long Island Brass - the 550E and Romero review

[WilliamLang]

Hi all!

I was able to go visit Long Island Brass the other day and was completely blown away by one of their options, the 550E mouthpiece. I've been happily using a fantastic Doug Elliott piece for the last few months, which does a lot of wonderful and unique things, and which I will also never get rid of, especially as a chamber/quintet/show option, but the 550E fits my sound concept just a touch better. I really feel spoiled for options!

For this video I compared the 550E (w/ a T1 shank) alongside a 1st generation LI Brass Sasha Romero (.285 backbore and T3 shank,) a Laskey-Alessi 60SYMPH, and Doug's fantastically made XT 104 rim XT G* cup and G8 shank combo.

[Bach5G]

Thanks, very cool.

The “E” designation: euphonium?

[norbie2018]

It's not listed on their website. Can you discuss the specs of the 550e?

[WilliamLang]

Sure! It has a slightly different outer shape than the Romero line, with a little more mass overall. The biggest difference is in the inner slope - it's a little more hallowed out in the inner walls, which leads to a larger empty volumetric area.

Apparently this mouthpiece felt great to a lot of euphonium players, and basically no other trombonists. I've always had an affinity for very deep cups though, maybe because I came up with a Shilke 51D through most of high school.

[norbie2018]

[LIBrassCo]

It's not listed on their website. Can you discuss the specs of the 550e?

That's on me, have to get the photos done. It's a 25.5mm rim, .280" throat, and a larger cup (between a 2 and 3g depth).

[harrisonreed]

That's pretty darn deep for tenor

[LIBrassCo]

That's pretty darn deep for tenor

Agreed. It's actually for Euph, but it worked great for Will on tenor.

[harrisonreed]

Yep. He's a beast! I've wondered, what is the notch on the shank for?

[Posaunus]

Will Lang is right - the 550E mouthpiece suits him perfectly. He sounds better than ever on it.
Given its specs, I don't think I could ever get it to work well for me. (Too deep.) To each his own!

[LIBrassCo]

Yep. He's a beast! I've wondered, what is the notch on the shank for?

Sizing. 1 ring = T1 shank.