King 2104

[Landok]

I have a king 2104 4B from the 80’s, and the Bach mouthpiece I have places into the mouthpiece receiver way more than normal for my liking. The notes are definitely not slotting well. Does anyone know what stocked mouthpieces out there with a shank that maybe sticks out a little further? Could a Remington conn shank work with other trombone models?

[harrisonreed]

The remington is not the type of taper you want for the mouthpiece in that picture -- any mouthpiece with a Morse taper, like that 3G, will wobble in the brown and sharpe taper that the remington pipe has. If you think the taper in the leadpipe or just the leadpipe in general is to blame, a tech can probably pull it so any pressfit .547 pipe will work.

It could be all kinds of reasons. The 3G could be the culprit.

[pompatus]

Those old large bore Kings are just like that. Often mouthpieces will sit deeper in them. Doug Elliott makes a special 'K' shank to sit at the proper depth in those horns.

[chromebone]

Some 4b’s and other Kings from that era have a trumpet style lead pipe in them: the leadpipe is recessed and mouthpiece shank goes into the slide receiver and is supposed to butt up against the end of the leadpipe venturi rather than inserted directly into the leadpipe. It works great if you have the original mouthpiece that was supplied with the horn, but otherwise you either have to find a mouthpiece that fits, have the leadpipe position moved or replace the leadpipe to get a perfect fit. It’s one reason why 4b’s didn’t catch on in orchestra circles the way they should have.

If it's wobbling a bit, that might be OK because the important thing is that it's up against the leadpipe. If it goes in too deep like yours is, that is more problematic, because that could mean there is a gap between the end of the mouthpiece and the end of the leadpipe, and that would cause slotting problems as you have described.

I've found that the older long shank Schilkes work pretty well in them, the longer shank gets the end of the mouthpiece up against the end of the leadpipe without a gap.

Later horns have a more conventional leadpipe in them.

[euphobone]

I have a 70s 4B and Duo Gravis, both my mouthpieces sit far in. I have never experienced any playing issues. It could be the 3G is not a good choice for the 4B? Modern, larger, deeper mouthpieces do make those instruments play rather on the flatter side. I find that with my Hammond 12ML (Tenor) and 20BLL (Bass) I don't need to pull my tuning slides out very far. When I was using a Wick 6BL and Bach 1 1/4G, respectively, my tuning slides were a little farther out than where I currently set them. Your mileage may vary.