Vintage mutes

[SwissTbone]

Through trial and error (actually buying and selling) I learnt a lot about vintage trombones. It's an expensive journey, but I love it!

Now I am getting interested in vintage mutes, but where to start? Any experts out there?

[PVH]

I wouldn’t say that I am an expert but I have used some vintage mutes by Ray Robinson and Shastock. They are certainly interesting to try. Unfortunately like all trombone mutes the vintage trumpet mutes seem to make more of a difference. The trumpet players I play with have a matched set of Ray Robinson cup mutes and for them it is like magic. My RR cup isn’t good enough to justify using it over my excellent Peter Gane cup. Also traveling with fragile vintage mutes is way more difficult when they are trombone sized.

I would say that the best use for vintage mutes is exactly what you are looking for - learning from them. Recordings of people using them could get you part of the way but nothing like actually playing on them. They open ears to the creative possibilities of trombone mute color. There is so much more than to play with than just the ubiquitous metal straight mute color. It is often frustrating that composers seem to limit themselves to that color so often. I find I take a lot more liberty now when a composer just writes “mute” to choose something I think would work really well for the piece.

Probably the best place to start is with a Ray Robinson or Shastock straight mute. The Ray Robinson cup mute is also worth having but it isn’t as radically different from a H&B Mic-a-mute cup if you have to choose one or the other. And the old Shastock straight can be really cool. Also the older Chicago made H&B mutes are different enough that it is probably worth trying them is you really want to go down the rabbit hole.

I still like my Peter Gane mute the best though as I think I can get these vintage mute colors in a durable mute that plays well across the range of the horn.

[SwissTbone]

Ah thats a start! Thanks for that!

I understand, the EMO mutes are pretty sought after in the trumpet world. What about trombone?