TromboneChat

Hey - any good alto mutes out there? I have a Conn36H. I'm wondering if other practice mutes might fit (flugel?).

Ideas? If you have personal experience, all the better.

I bought a flugel Sshhmute thinking I was being clever.

It's identical to the tenor trombone one, just blue instead of red. I wondered if maybe the diameter or length of the internal tube was different, so I measured them both - it's all the same.

On an 6.5" bell Amati (Bach 39 knockoff) I needed to take off the cork and replace with an appropriate thickness of electrical tape. The cork is attached with double-sided tape, and isn't hard to remove. Might not be necessary for the Conn taper, of course. Now fits well, and plays well. The intonation stank without the mute, and it stank the same with it

I used this denis wick flugelhorn practice mute. It’s marketed for altos too. Doesn’t deaden the sound as much as my tenor mute does, but it fits well and does work. Be careful putting it in, the metal at the end is slightly sharp.

I used a Flugel straight on my Conn 36H.

Given the bell size you might be able to use the SofTone mute. Note: you must "inflate" it prior to practicing or the intonation goes wonky throughout the range. If you inflate the mute the intonation only goes wonky at the edges of the range.

I found that my tenor shmute works just fine. It sticks out a bit but it works

The standard tenor best brass sort of fits and makes it very quiet. I guess it depends on how much stock you put into using a practice mute, other than just needing it to be quiet.

I made a dedicated Renuzit sized for the alto.

However, last year someone posted some 3D print designs including one for a practice mute. it would be pretty easy to size that one for alto, or he might even be willing to do it. I think it was a parametric, so you the design stays the same you just change a couple dimensions.

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Good info, folks. Thank you.

ithinknot wrote: ↑Thu Mar 11, 2021 1:12 pmOn an 6.5" bell Amati (Bach 39 knockoff)

Slight tangent - how playable is that Amati? Looks to be priced only a bit higher than some Chinese altos, and I like the design on the 39.

I believe Rejano Mutes is going to release an Alto specific practice mute.

Johnstad wrote: ↑Wed Mar 17, 2021 9:19 pm I believe Rejano Mutes is going to release an Alto specific practice mute.

I asked them directly and they said they would be releasing alto and contra practice mutes soon.

spencercarran wrote: ↑Wed Mar 17, 2021 1:26 pm

ithinknot wrote: ↑Thu Mar 11, 2021 1:12 pmOn an 6.5" bell Amati (Bach 39 knockoff)

Slight tangent - how playable is that Amati? Looks to be priced only a bit higher than some Chinese altos, and I like the design on the 39.

I... don't really know - insofar as it's the only alto with which I've ever spent any significant time, so I can't offer much in the way of direct comparison. Also, I bought mine under the influence of childhood, visiting their showroom in Prague roughly 15 years ago, so quality may have migrated one way or another since. It's not an exact copy of the Bach - single radius crook and 2pc bell, for starters.

So, FW(L)IW... Lacquer is good, buffing not perfect but no worse than you see on modern Conn-Selmer stuff. Slide was always fast, but took a lot of working in/serious polishing/cleaning to get quiet. Ended up really quite good, so it wasn't the quality of drawing etc holding it back.

Intonation is quite acceptable - some mild quirks but nothing hard to learn - but only if you keep the TS shut and play long on the slide. If this suits you, you might get on with it just fine. Might be even better behaved if you cut down the TS further, but there's not much extra slide length before you'd lose 7th. With the TS out, things get tricky, and more than an inch out partials 4/5/6 are no longer a major triad, especially beyond 3rd position - it's wild how bad it gets. But I don't know how significant this is compared to other non-TIS altos. Slotting and response are pretty even and predictable, and the tone is *really* nice - like, surprisingly so. I'd guess the YB+sleeves 'heavy' slide has a lot to do with this, but it's just a clear, yellow-but-not-bright, grown-up-Bach sort of noise all round. Not stuffy at all, despite .453". Leadpipe is open, something like .410" venturi.

One thing I've noticed is that because of the weight distribution of my alto, anything but a very light mute feels very front-heavy. My suspicion is that something like a Best-Brass flugel mute would be ideal.