CHOOSING A MOUTHPIECE

It is crucially important in the early stages of playing to avoid choosing a mouthpiece too extreme in any of its features without good reason. There is a bewildering array from which to choose, with variations in cup depth, rim width, internal diameter, and bore size to consider.

A wise initial step is to choose a good middle-of-the-range mouthpiece of medium depth. Such a choice would be the Paxman 3B or 4B or a DW-Paxman 5.5. From either of these a constructive move could be made to alternative options. For help and advice on any aspect of selecting your mouthpiece, please contact the Paxman team.

PAXMAN MOUTHPIECES AND CUPS

Available as one-piece and two-piece setups and manufactured in silver plated brass to help our colleagues who are finding they have nickel allergies. Detachable rims are available in silver plated, white acetal, or gold-plating.

For in depth information on our own range of mouthpieces, please visit our Mouthpieces, Cups & Rims section to learn more.

DW-PAXMAN MOUTHPIECES

Some time ago, Paxman Director and LSO principal horn, Tim Jones, was approached by Denis Wick with a view to developing a range of horn mouthpieces based on the principles underlying Wick’s ‘Heritage’ range. This principle is based on a late 19th century design, where the cup wall is very thin near the mouthpiece rim, combined with the new idea to have substantially more mass lower down the cup. Whilst Denis Wick had established that the principle worked exceptionally well on horn mouthpieces, they wanted Tim’s and Paxman’s help and expertise in refining the various combinations of cup and rim. The concept was tried using some existing Paxman and Denis Wick mouthpieces as models for the internal shape, but changing the external profile. The result was amazing. The mouthpieces had an immediate, easy response, particularly in the high register, a smooth legato and a sound rich in overtones over the whole range. After substantial testing, a range of 7 models was produced, based on the Paxman 3B, 4B, the Wick 5N, 6N and 7N and some other traditional style cups.

While the look of the mouthpiece is a big departure from the traditional ‘funnel’ shape of other mouthpieces, the internal sizes and rim profiles are completely conventional. In a world where to stand out from the crowd is sometimes not easy, we very much feel that the benefits of this design make it worthwhile to dare to be different!

For further information about the DW-Paxman range, please visit our Online Shop for further details