Practice/Warm-up mutes

[MTbassbone]

I am finding myself in more situations where I need to warm=up quietly. I have had a Wallace mute in the past, and altered it to get the resistance I wanted, but the portability was undesirable. I am looking for thoughts on the following practice mutes: Best Brass Warm-up, Best Brass Warm-up Jr, Protec, Faxx, and the Wick compact. I wish they made one practice mute that worked for both tenor and bass trombone, but I imagine that is unlikely to happen. I see Amazon has a practice mute made by Pampet. Never heard of them, but the reviews seem promising.

[baileyman]

Next time you're in Boston, come by and I'll make you one that plays perfectly.

[MTbassbone]

Next time you're in Boston, come by and I'll make you one that plays perfectly.

Care to elaborate?

[FullPedalTrombonist]

I heard the Okra mute is really good. The last time I needed one they were sold out and I just stuck with my heavy Yamaha Silent Brass.

[MTbassbone]

The Okra mute has the continuous foam ring around the top, and I have never really had luck with mutes that have that element. This is why I altered the Wallace I had at one point. I had it replaced with 3 pieces of cork. It really helped with how it played. I think the Wick might have the continuous ring too.

[BGuttman]

The Okra mute has the continuous foam ring around the top, and I have never really had luck with mutes that have that element. This is why I altered the Wallace I had at one point. I had it replaced with 3 pieces of cork. It really helped with how it played. I think the Wick might have the continuous ring too.

Wick has a continuous cork ring.

[RoscoTrombone]

I have the Wallace bass compact mute which has the resistance adjuster in it.

Works a treat.

Ross

[MTbassbone]

I see the Wallace has a continuous ring. Any one know the weight? The adjustable resistance has me interested.

[ssking2b]

Dillon Music has their version of the Best Brass warm up mute for both tenor and bass trombone. I own both. They are excellent! The cost of either is $49.95

[timothy42b]

The Okra mute has the continuous foam ring around the top, and I have never really had luck with mutes that have that element. This is why I altered the Wallace I had at one point. I had it replaced with 3 pieces of cork.

In my opinion only: The continuous ring is needed for sealing but it isn't optimal for holding the mute in place securely. The best solution is to separate the functions: use 3 cork strips to hold the mute in the proper position, and then add a continuous ring to do the sealing. That lets you adjust the height of the ring separately, if you feel like continuous is too much of a seal.

My Renuzits are all done that way.

[Matt K]

Nothing beats the newer silent brass for me. W/ or w/o the electronics, I seldom use them with them personally. For bass trombone, you have to use the older one though I've heard a newer french horn one works I've never personally tried it. The new ones are very well balanced (they don't make the horn nose heavy), don't affect the pitch very much at all - even in the higher ranges, and are darn near silent.

[greenbean]

I have used the Best Brass and Protec Liberty copy of it. They work very well for bass and tenor. I also recently acquired a bag of free mutes (yippie!) and it included a Jo-Ral warm-up mute that is essentially their straight mute with continuous cork ring. The previous owner has drilled two holes on the bottom edges of the mutes and it plays very well.

[MTbassbone]

I got the Protec Liberty practice mute in the mail. The mute reduced the volume by about 15 db. In the upper register it played extremely flat. Does anyone know if the Best Brass is better, worse, or the same as this?

[Burgerbob]

I got the Protec Liberty practice mute in the mail. The mute reduced the volume by about 15 db. In the upper register it played extremely flat. Does anyone know if the Best Brass is better, worse, or the same as this?

Same thing.

[harrisonreed]

I've started really disliking the Best Brass mute. It gets the job done in a dire pinch, but affects the intonation a lot and the blow is pretty terrible. I think it plays well with other models of trombone, but not mine.

I haven't found any practice mutes that deliver on what they promise.