[Trombone-l] Harmon Mute - now mutes

[Walter Barrett]

On Sep 12, 2007, at 7:43 PM, Harlan Feinstein wrote:

>> The trombone section was using the Humes and Berg cups and the
>> trigger and pedal register wasn't
>> speaking quickly enough
>
> That seems the standard drawback to cheap mutes across the board, but
> particularly with cup mutes, that their lower register is kind of
> squirrely, no?  I had a stonelined at one point, and there were one
> or two notes in particular that didn't speak well.  I'm told that you
> can alter where the problem is by changing/filing corks... anyone had
> that experience?
>
> --Harlan
>
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Harlan-

Once you adjust the corks to get the mute in tune with the open horn  
(or at least as close as possible), you should leave them alone. One  
thing I've found that gets rid of the squirrelly notes is to drill a  
small hole in the mute, in or near the bottom. H&B tenor trombone cup  
mutes are notorious for not having a usable low G, and that takes  
care of it. Make the hole small to start with, you'll probably end up  
around 1/8 inch. If you don't like it, just tape over it. This also  
works on straight mutes.

Another thing to try on a cup mute is to take a handkerchief sized  
piece of cloth (flannel works well.) Fold it diagonally to make a  
triangle, then roll it up into a tube. Tape the ends together to form  
an "O," sized to fit into the cup part of the mute. Put that into the  
cup, and the squirrels will go away. You can keep it removable, or  
loosely tape it in place.


Walter Barrett

"Government is the Entertainment Division of the military-industrial  
complex."
	-Frank Zappa

Alto, tenor, bass trombones
Bass trumpet, euphonium, tuba
Yamaha Artist/Clinician
http://www.walterbarrett.com