TromboneChat

I just purchased what Kanstul said is the first bass trumpet Zig ever made and I am wondering if anyone has some experience with mouthpieces for these things? I'm assuming I will probably have to go pretty small to make the right sort of sound on it (aka not valve trombone). Maybe something out there was/is made to synergize with the 3V piston horns?
Also if anyone knows any great chamber or solo rep feel free to message me and chat.

The piston bass trumpets seem to like something in the 12c neighborhood to sound trumpet-like. Some of the rotary instruments you can get away with a little bigger depending on exactly the design as there is a lot of variation there. There is practically zero solo literature specifically for the bass trumpet, but you can take a lot of the Bb trumpet literature an octave down very successfully. There is a small body of literature for trumpet ensemble that uses a bass trumpet on the bottom.

My experience with bass trumpet is fairly limited. I found that when I played it for a Korngold opera here a couple of years ago, that a "C" cup mouthpiece worked best. I started with a 6.5al cup, since some of the part was low, but the horn seemed to come alive with the shallower cup. Our 1st trumpet player noticed the change immediately, and gave a big thumbs-up for the change. I play the same rim on everything, except for the rare times I pick up a bass trombone (in the Bach 4 range). I know some people will tell me that's too large, but it worked for me. I've loaned my instrument out to a couple of players here to play the "Rite of Spring", and they used similar equipment. I initially thought that a slightly deeper cup would help with the lower passages, but not really. The choice of rim size, I would leave to the player's preference/comfort level, but smaller is probably better if you can manage it.

Jim Scott

Sound concept is the key, remember it's a bass trumpet, not as someone send said a curled up valve trombone, if you go deep then you lose articulation a and it becomes 'woofy'.

This is where when your working and using multiple instruments Doug's system I found gives me what I needed

All good insight... many thanks already.
I suppose I'll try it with the 7C I'm using now and maybe see if I can go smaller. I have a Jiggs 1A and maybe I'll look into something in the 12-15 range.

If you can find any of the smaller Bach "A" cup pieces, those may work well. I use a 15A on my alto and it plays much bigger than you'd think, while still retaining the right sound.

I use a Bach 14D.

There's a Flugabone

s11141827 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 10, 2023 6:26 pm There's a Flugabone

Different beast entirely.

Kanstul 1088 Bass Trumpet
7" (17.8 cm) Bell
.485" (12.3 mm) bore

Kanstul 955 Flugelbone
8.5" (21.6 cm) bell
.500" (12.7 mm) bore

I find 12-15c range is nice for piston bass trumpet and getting more of a trumpet sound. I played a Kanstul one for a few weeks a long time ago and it seemed to work well on a 12c.

On Meinl-weston rotary I recently got I've been finding smaller than that was better (Warburton with a close to normal Tim, but quite shallow cup), on Lidl I had before it that wasn't the case. Kinda seems like each type takes some experimentation to find the right sound.

In terms of solo repertoire- there's not a ton. I've written and commissioned a few but they're reallllllly far down the rabbit hole. There is quite a nice solo by Giacinto Scelsi that's an awesome challenge (he's also got a lovely trumpet solo). Agreed with others on existing trumpet repertoire. I just heard a Leopold Mozart trumpet concerto on the radio the other day that I've been messing with on it. It seems to be a nice one. the Telemann Heroic Music is really enjoyable too.

Shallow cups definitely work better. With my stuff you can keep your normal rim size by using my ST or MT series, which have smaller cup volumes. I can make larger rim sizes for those series. I just made a 106 rim for the MT series, and I try to keep 101, 102, 103, and 104 in stock.