Bass trombone practice mute

[meine]

Hello, I‘ll have to practice more in the evening where I have to practice as silent as possible. I use a Best Brass mute from Yamaha modified in order to get as similar much air away as if I would practice without mute. Still, there is more resistance as with the open horn.

Does a practice mute exist with practically zero resistance?

[Burgerbob]

No.

[DougHulme]

It wouldnt b a practice mute if there was no resistance - youd be playing at full bore! You cant stop sound without resitance... Doug

[MStarke]

All practice mutes have some influence on resistance, response and intonation. Regarding intonation you might want to pull out the tuning slide a bit to get the same basic tuning as without the mute. still intonation between partials will be off. typically (always?) upper partials will be a bit low. Do not try to push against it, but accept it.

For bass trombone I have following practice mutes:
Denis Wick - not very good and comparably heavy
Best Brass - very light and comfortable, okay feeling
Ssssshhh mute - closest to normal playing among these three, but heavier than the Best Brass

The Rejano and Ben van Dijk mutes are also said to be quite good.

[meine]

Hello Markus,

thanks for the information, I‘ll try the sssshhh mute. Let‘s see how it is.

[DougHulme]

The Okura mutes are also very good and stay in the bell better than the ssshhh mutes (which sometimes fall out but is a minor point) but are very similar in character. The Voigt mute is also similar and cheaper. Wallace/Muirhead do a practice mute with adjustable resistance (as the Okura is too) they claim you can 'tune' the mute (though I cant tell the difference). Of those I have tried the Okura has become my favourite... Doug

[ithinknot]

The Okura mutes are also very good and stay in the bell better than the ssshhh mutes (which sometimes fall out but is a minor point) but are very similar in character. The Voigt mute is also similar and cheaper. Wallace/Muirhead do a practice mute with adjustable resistance (as the Okura is too) they claim you can 'tune' the mute (though I cant tell the difference). Of those I have tried the Okura has become my favourite... Doug

You're talking about the bass Okura? I think the tenor model is excellent, but the intonation on their "horn/bass trombone" model is unusably bad on my Bachs or Holtons. The octaves are significantly compressed; high range is very flat, even by practice mute standards, and the 2nd partial is a full semitone sharp. What are you using it with?

sshhmute blows quite well, but it falls out if you don't fog the bell first, and it's very bulky. Of those that can be transported in the bell, the adjustable Wallace is good, though my preference is the Mutio. Takes time to find the foam arrangement/insertion depth that gives good intonation, but once you get there it's a relatively transparent blow and a somewhat nicer tone than others. Very light, too.

[DougHulme]

I was talking about the Bass model, I use it in my Edwards and my Kanstul and cant say I have found it as you say though I primarily just use practice mutes to warm up at venues, ocassionally in accomodation rooms. I'll re-examine now youve said this. I also settled on the Okura using one of their prototypes and although I now own a current model I didnt re-examine it. You are right about the ssshhh mute, though someone told me they have made a slight modification to stop it falling out now - I can't comment on that. I have never tried a Mutio but from your comments and trials it sounds promising... Doug

[marccromme]

Agree with the following alteration:

For bass trombone I have following practice mutes:
Denis Wick - not very good and comparably heavy
Best Brass - very light and comfortable, okay feeling
Ssssshhh mute - closest to normal playing among these three, but heavier than the Best Brass

The Bremner Shhhh mute is the best musically speaking, there are two different , an old one with straight conical sides - this one falls easily off, and one with cirved sides similar to the Bremner Shh tenor mute - that one is better in fit and musical aspects. Both are a bit heavy.

There is also the Pasionee , semmes to be a one-to-one clone of the best Brass, just half price, very light and comfortable, okay feeling.

I use the Bremner Shh at home, and the Pasionee out at gigs, manly because its lighter and smaller, and fits in my case beside the trombone.