TromboneChat

I find it to be effective, and I use it daily. The trade-off is that with significant volume reduction comes significant increase in back pressure. I think so long as you can spend enough time off-mute to avoid developing bad habits associated with playing muted, and avoid over-blowing while muted, it can be an acceptable compromise. I wouldn't call it ideal... only acceptable. I only recently returned to playing after a very long break, so what I find acceptable is likely not the same as what others do - ymmv, as always.

I am a long term user of the Yamaha Silent Brass system. It has some advantages and some disadvantages. I've also played a variety of other practice/warmup mutes.

Practice mutes tend to eliminate the sound of your playing. This is good for keeping peace with neighbors or within the household, but since you can't hear yourself you tend to try to compensate by playing LOUDER. Then when you take off the mute to perform in public you suddenly discover you have little control over your sound.

The Yamaha Silent Brass compensates for this by offering a way to be quieted but still hear yourself as if you were playing unmuted. I used mine when I was in a semi-private room in a rehab and my roommate told me it didn't even interfere with his watching a TV in the next bed.

One problem with most practice mutes that is not solved is that they change the feel of the horn. It feels somewhat stuffy. Common problem with a lot of practice mutes.

Another problem is the mute is heavy. Makes the horn feel nose heavy and can tire you out.

Third problem with the Silent Brass is all the wires. They seem to be everywhere and get tangled. Very annoying when you pick the horn up and the wire pulls the mute out of the bell. Or you try to put the horn to your mouth and there is a wire pulling it away. Takes a while to figure out how to move things around. Also, I HATE earbuds, so I use a headphone from an old Sony Walkman. Much more comfortable for me.

I like the Silent Brass overall because it seems to be the best solution to using a practice mute, but every so often you need to have an opportunity to play open to recalibrate your playing.

Aside from our suburban house, we have a city apartment for fun. I'll sometimes practice there. I have tried the Silent Brass Mute system and totally hate it for all the negative reasons listed so far. For sound mitigation, I have stapled those 12" square sound panels on a common wall and installed a room-divider curtain over them for additional soundproofing and a better visual. Since I normally practice at about a mp on bass trombone, the sound coming out of my bell is no louder than adjacent apartment tv sets, so I don't worry about it - as long as I play during common active hours. When I leave or get evicted, those staple holes will be very easy to spackle and the wall of sound-deadening curtains are held up with a big tension rod.

Having tried 'them all', I still love the Silent Brass system (newer model).

My thoughts:
- if you're struggling with the wrong mouthpiece for your face and horn, a practice mute might make things even worse.
- however, if you've got a mouthpiece that is really well suited for you, then it's not that harmful.
- don't use the 'long' reverb all the time. If playing along with recorded tracks, use the 'short' reverb.

BUT....don't practice for too long with it. Play for maybe a half hour or something like that.

And find some earphones/earbuds that will help 'eq' your sound to make the mic and mute sound brighter in your ears. Otherwise it's not very inspiring to use the system.

I'm another advocate for Silent Brass system (yes, the new one). I use on trombone and trumpet. I've found that I practice much more (mostly since I can do it at any time without worrying about impacting anyone else) after I bought it a few years ago.

I also agree that you need to balance your time on the Silent Brass with time playing in the clear. It should come with a label "Use with CAUTION" as you sound great in the silent brass even with a crappy embouchure - so player be ware - you could develop bad habits. For this one reason, I would not recommend it for new players.

Drives me nuts at a gig when people warm up at full volume, screw everybody else and the audience. I use my old model Silent Mute to get my chops warmed up without annoying everybody. I like that the old model fits in my bass as well as my tenors, but yeah it is front-heavy compared to the new model.

After using the older and new versions it occurs to me that directing the sound in the bell straight into my ears is perhaps not a good idea, even with the volume low. Higher pitches tend to be played louder, negating the volume control to some, or even a large, extent. Also, it takes less air and less control, giving you a false sense of security in those aspects. Using a plain practice mute is seeming a better and better idea, using rehearsal time as your open horn time and remembering to focus on air and control of the sound more than you normally would.

At home there is no problem for me playing without mute, sometimes I take the softone mute when my daughter is preparing for school.
Whereas on holidays there is always the silent brass and the pbone on board of our camping car.
With a table to the right the wires don't bother me and so far I didn't bother anyone on the camping site.

I have the old system. With my B/F horns I find that the weight of the instrument increases significantly whereas with my straight small bores, it makes the horn so nose heavy that, after a while, it becomes ergonomically challenging. I came upon a plastic "Pampet" practice/warm up mute a while ago, which suits my needs just fine, and are pretty inexpensive compared to other products. Also tried the "soft- tone" but didn't work well for me.

Does anybody know if the new silent brass system will fit into a King 5B, given the slightly wider bell section bore?