MeeuwsenMouthpieces.com

Trumpet Mouthpiece design and dupication
NEW: Check out my youtube channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/lipshurt
Meeuwsen Mouthpieces is a full
service trumpet mouthpiece shop. We
concentrate on custom mouthpieces
and custom mouthpiece work. Things
like mouthpiece copies, rim and cup
alteration, threading rims, threading
backbores, backbore and throat work
are our specialty. We also do have
many popular pieces "already made".
Common jobs that have a high rate
of success for the player might be:
Taking and existing mouthpiece and
making it feel on the lips like another
mouthpiece by altering the rim and cup
diameter. This is maybe the most
common alteration.
Removing a tiny bit of material just
below the bite of the rim to give a bit
more room for the lips to vibrate. This
is common on a piece similar to the
Schilke 14A4A which has a "high
alpha angle" which does not work for
some players.
Mouthpiece or rim copies. Copies
really not that hard to do, but some
pieces pose particular problems. I use
the "old fashioned" method of making
an epoxy impression of the cup and
rim and then carving the new piece to
match the impression. I have gotten
quite good at this in the last 40 years.
having said that it should be noted that
some pieces pose particular problem.
most mouthpieces to some degree are
not perfectly concentric. That means
that one side of the inner edge "bite"
will softer or sharper than the opposite
side. It sounds like a bad thing, but lots
of players will always turn the piece so
that the shaper edge is at the bottom
or top lip and then that mouthpiece is
MAGIC. Well, that is hard to copy.
When you make the impression, and
split it in half, you only get two points
of reference. The copy made will be
quite close to the original but wont
have the non-concentric magic.
How good a copy is can also be
about more than if the rim and cup are
duplicated accurately. The mass of the
blank, the length of the throat, the size
and shape of the backbore etc affect
the vibe of a "copy".
I tell people I can copy about as
close as anyone else and better than
a "computer copy" which is far inferior
to the "old fashioned way". That is a
fact by the way.
