Hey All,

I primarily play bass trombone in jazz bands, and I’ve been working to find the right mouthpiece fit for my playing style and face.

I’m on a Butler C12 with a Doug Elliott LB112/bL/L8s .490 setup I inherited ~1 year ago. It plays well, but I’m not sure it’s the perfect match — I sometimes feel like I’m working harder than I should to get the flexibility and response I want. Coming from a tuba background, I’ve always preferred slightly larger setups (e.g. Doug Yeo size), but I’m trying to find the balance between openness, efficiency, and sound in a jazz/commercial setting.

For those of you playing modern jazz or commercial bass trombone, how did you determine what mouthpiece size and setup best fits your embouchure and horn? Any advice on dialing in rim size, cup depth, and backbore to find that “just right” setup would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any insight!

(P.S. been hearing great things about a lesson/fitting with Doug Elliott! May pursue this as well!!)

Depends on the kind of playing I'm doing at the time. When I was doing a LOT of bass playing, almost exclusively, I was gravitating towards a 114 and probably would have used a 116 if I had owned one at the time. When I'm doing a lot of tenor, I gravitate closer to the extreme other end of the spectrum - a 106 or 108. For big bands, I tend to play shallower cups like an MB I. If I happen to have a lot of lower stuff like pedal Fs I'll go bigger to a J or an L cup. But I seldom personally come across anything that actually demands that range outside of trombone specific groups, or my own writing. I was at a gig a few days ago with a pedal Eb, which I wrote, but I wasn't playing bass <span class="emoji" title=":wink:">😉</span>

I am primarily a Tenor player. I couldn`t find a Bass Mouthpiece I was happy with.

Schilke 58 worked good especially if I had to do some improvisation. But It never really socked in the bottom of the horn,

The 59 was just the reverse.

I finally settled on a Greg Black 1 3/8 GM.

I can play from Pedal F to high C with a good sound. Everything just fell into place for me

My choice for bass in a big band setting is a DE LB114E8-I have an LB 116W rim if the part is more like a tuba part. The E cup gives me that bit of edge to the tone when it is required. For orchestral stuff I use a Doug Yeo Signature.

Cheers

Stewbones43

At the moment, Bach 1 1/4GM. Laskey 85MD is a good choice too, sometimes, but I'm still not sure about the two I have.

Well just because everything else is all over the place, I turned to a Curry 2D for smaller stuff, and the Curry 1.5D for anything bigger. The Curry numbers don't match with Bach cup numbers. It just gives a brighter sound while still allowing access to the low notes.

The DE L cup is pretty big. As a tuba player the bigger rims are probably ok, but to get more bite in a commercial sound, you might want a shallower cup. Maybe J.

To be honest, it might not be a mouthpiece problem. The bigger problem might be the horn. I haven't played the Butler, but as I understand it, it's generally a compromise choice.

I'm playing a DE XB113 rim on an L cup and L9 shank on a Shires Bollinger for orchestra. All I do for big band is switch out the cup/shank for a K cup and K9 shank (using the same horn). It's working great, but I would love to experiment with a J/J9 and M/M9 just to see where the line is and when it's too much.