Doug Elliott Mouthpiece Comparison

[WilliamLang]

Hi all!

Doug Elliott was nice enough to send me one of his Mouthpieces with a few rim choices, and after a day on it, I gotta say I'm highly impressed. This is definitely a contender for my everyday mouthpiece, after checking out against my primary Laskey 59D and my more orchestral styled Laskey-Alessi 55 SYMPH.

Big thank you to Doug! You make an outstanding and aesthetic beautiful mouthpiece for sure.



Specs:
XT 104 rim (also came with a 102 and 103 option)
Cup: XT G *
Shank: G8

[hyperbolica]

Cool, that's exactly the combination I play on large bore, XT104G8. I agree with you that you sound best on the DE. Great stuff. And very comfortable, as you noted a couple of times.

Another aspect that you might check out later is that you can keep the rim the same while you change the underparts to get different sound or feel in various situations. I have this tendency to use different horns in different groups, so I'm always using different mouthpieces. I can't just make big rim changes, so I tend to keep the same 104 rim whatever else I'm playing (besides bass, which is a different story). You can fit the same rim to large or small shank pieces.

Anyway, thanks for doing these comparisons. Your playing sounds great.

[MTbassbone]

Full disclosure I play Doug's mouthpieces. I really like the combination of a wide rim and shallow cup and the lexan rims are very comfortable. Super efficient. In your playing examples I liked Doug's mouthpiece with the 104 rim on all of the excerpts, except for the Saint-Saëns. Sounded too diffuse. I would be curious what it would sound like with the 102 rim for that excerpt.

[harrisonreed]

If you like that, Doug's small bore and alto pieces are where his work really shines. The alto A cup and C+ cup (with proper shank) are absolutely genius.

The G cup is pretty deep.

[WilliamLang]

thanks for the thoughts all!

@hyberbolica - I'll probably check out the cups another time for sure, and thanks for the thoughts. I find that rim size for me matters less than the mouthpiece working as a whole - I've had some success with different mouthpieces of all sizes as long as they feel integrated towards the goal or style they are trying to achieve.

@MTbassbone - I think the 102 would sound better on a close mic video or microphone, but in an orchestral setting I'd give the phrase a little more air, and I think the 104 would end up being more appropriate as the bass in the clarinet/french horn/trombone trio solo.

@harrisonreed - I love a deep cup mouthpiece, they've always fit my sense of air use. I find the G cup to be maybe a little deeper than medium, but not as deep as some other mouthpieces (Laskey 59D, Laskey 57E, Greg Black 5G L, and Griego-Alessi F cups would all be slightly deeper going by the ever-so-scientific finger test.) Also cool to know about the alto pieces, and thanks

[JeffBone44]

No matter what I try, I keep returning to Doug's mouthpieces. Simply put, they are the most effortless and efficient to play, they are very comfortable on the chops, and are very even throughout the ranges of the horn.

I use a G+ cup, slightly deeper than the G, but I still get plenty of brilliance when I need it. When I got the new large bore shank, it was extremely open. I could get more volume out of it, but it felt a little bit unstable. Normally I use a #2 leadpipe on my Shires, but when I switched to the tighter #1.5 the mouthpiece felt great again.

[norbie2018]

You may also want to try the SYM series 104. Larger blank and I believe different specs that may be too your liking.

[harrisonreed]

Doug, will you ever make K or M size reamer backbores for the E thru G cups?

[JeffBone44]

You may also want to try the SYM series 104. Larger blank and I believe different specs that may be too your liking.

Is this something new? I just noticed it on the website.

[Doug Elliott]

Doug, will you ever make K or M size reamer backbores for the E thru G cups?

Absolutely not.

[harrisonreed]

[Macbone1]

"Big thank you to Doug! You make an outstanding and aesthetic beautiful mouthpiece for sure"

I have a couple, and they are also the "smartest" designed mouthpieces I know of. Why plate the shank? Insertion and removal will just scratch it off. The hex cut at the top means you can just grab a wrench if it gets stuck.

[ithinknot]

Doug, will you ever make K or M size reamer backbores for the E thru G cups?

Absolutely not.

I knew that was going to be the answer, but I still enjoyed seeing it

William - sounds great!

[Matt K]

Doug, will you ever make K or M size reamer backbores for the E thru G cups?

E”CL” shank?

[harrisonreed]

Doug, will you ever make K or M size reamer backbores for the E thru G cups?

E”CL” shank?

Not even. The 4CL is a .307" throat, which I don't think has a "letter" reamer associated with it. It's 7.8mm.

I think that throat works well on a medium cup, WITH a relatively tight backbore, but might be way too much for a deep G cup mouthpiece. The Alessi mouthpieces are almost that deep and have those K and M throat sizes though.

I'm not complaining, I love my DE stuff. Thought it was worth asking about.

[ZacharyThornton]

I have a “basic” DE set up that he fitted me for years ago. I have sold it and rebought at least 3 times. It is just the most efficient and easy to play bass mouthpiece I have ever played. My daily driver is something else but this mouthpiece is still just phenomenal! It is a LB112, K, K9.

[Matt K]

If you're on a dual-bore, you should try the 2022 or 2023 K10. Difference is subtle between the older K9, but still noticeably more efficient imo

[Posaunus]

The 4CL is a .307" throat, which I don't think has a "letter" reamer associated with it. It's 7.8mm.

It's true that the Christian Lindberg mouthpieces have "unusual" specifications (relative to industry "norms").
My 4CL (~25.60mm / 1.008" Cup I.D.) has a very wide throat (7.70mm / 0.303") - not quite as large as Harrison's.
But somehow it works well with a large-bore tenor. Such a throat is generally too open for me.

For reference, my 5CL (similar Cup I.D.: ~25.83mm / 1.017") has a modest throat (6.76mm / 0.266").
And it works too (especially for Christian!).

I've never seen a 2CL, but it has a similar size Cup I.D. (~25.55mm / 1.006") and apparently an even larger throat. (Has anyone ever measured a 2CL throat?)

It's all a mystery to me. I'm an ex-engineer, so I relate more closely to Doug Elliott's systematic approach to mouthpiece design. Both - somehow - are successful.

[harrisonreed]

(Yeah the 2CL is also .307. It just has a much larger throat entrance.)