My Wedge Mouthpiece Chronicles

OK, the Harrison Wedge 1.5c mouthpiece arrived Saturday afternoon, 12/1/2007.

I didn't have time to do much with it as I needed to do some snow management before Sat. evening's big band gig.

So I warm up on it at the gig which was, well, different.  The strange shape takes some getting used to, particularly the top cusp that rests on the "sweet" spot of the lip.

I used it for our first set which lasted about an hour.  I could tell it was doing something different for me.  The notes above the staff seemed to come noticably easier and I was able to play longer phrases above the staff (i.e. 24 bars in one chart) than with my regular piece, a Warburton 3M.

The "bump" resting on the top of my lip was a bit weird, but became less noticable as the night went on.

I went back to my old piece for the second set and could tell I needed to "work" a bit more to do the same thing as the Wedge.

I played the 3rd set on the wedge and it played fine.
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Sunday I just did some noodling around practicing and ran some harder quintet parts like CB's Messiah.  I had mixed emotions because the wedge didn't seem to help at all and still "felt funny" on the old lip.
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Monday-I've just been noodling and pushing the upper range and it is once again feeling easier than my old piece.  I'm actually starting to get some volume out of the "double high" notes and my high Eb feels good and secure.

Also, I have noticed that those high Bb marcato notes at the end of some phrases are staring to feel more like G's - nice.

If this keeps up in another week I'll have the high G!   Ha!  We'll see about that!

I'll keep posting my impressions.
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Tuesday 12/4/07

This mouthpiece is no joke guys and gals!  Dr. Dave delivers on his pitch!

I'm running some of the more challenging charts from my big band folder and

My lips are getting used to the form of this thing and I think they like it!

....Holy Crap!  I just played through tpt 2 part of MF's Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me without having to take anything down an octave!!! - that's a big improvement for me, personally.  This rocks!  I can't wait for my next rock/funk band gig on the 14th!

Its like I've been playing with a mute in my horn my whole life and someone just pulled it out!

Stay tuned!

Usually playing ridiculously high for an hour would bust my chops but I feel like I could go another hour!
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Wednesday 12/5/07
Had an easy practice with my "old folks" big band.  Nothing of any 'note' to report.
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Thursday 12/6/2007

I'm just playing around at home tonight.  Running big band charts and having fun. 

The range is creeping up slowly as I play this piece more.  Not only do notes above the staff feel easier, like maybe you  are playing a 3rd lower than you are hearing, but also I am starting to achieve some nice volume out of the double G's and B's.

It seems the longer I play and more determined I am the more I get out of it.

Also, it almost feels natural now without the "bump on the lip" feeling I had at first.

This is so much fun, I wish Dave had made these years ago!

BTW, I haven't mentioned anything about tone quality, intonation, attacks, etc. because they are not noticeably different from my Warburton 3M.  If anything the response is improving everyday I practice, plus my high C's are getting a fuller (not louder) sound to them.
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Tuesday 12/11/2007

I haven't posted in a few days, so I thought I'd share.

I'm just practicing and messing around, no serious gigs anytime soon.  So, back to the MF charts...   I thought maybe that I had grown "used to" the wedge and wasn't seeing much difference, so I popped my old Warburton 3M in and wow!  Things above the staff got really tough again.

And, like others said, a conventional mouthpiece now feels weird.

I guess it shows that its easy to get comfortable with the wedge and forget how things were on the old equipment.

I'm sold and definitely will keep this mpc. and recommend it to whomever I can.

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Wednesday 12/12/2007
I had my first quintet rehearsal with the wedge mouthpiece tonight.

I was pleased for several reasons - first, I wasn't tired after a nearly 2 hour practice,
second, long, uninterrupted passages didn't "run out of gas" like before and third, I was able to play softly without discomfort.

We practice in a church with a decent amount of echo and I could at times really hear a new, vibrancy in my sound.

All in all, this mouthpiece is really an answer to my prayers.

Anyone willing to spend several hundred on a mouthpiece from our friends in Portland should really at least try a Wedge.

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Friday 12/14/2007

I had a 9-1 gig with my rock-funk band and was very pleased at how much easier everything played using the Wedge mouthpiece.  It really did eliminate most of my typical fatigue.  Hats off to Dr. Dave's great invention.

Greg

Edited by Greg Zent - 15 Dec 2007 at 12:11

Greg, thanks for posting this....question for you, the harrison 1.5C, is the numerical system similar to Bach?

John, like always you are the man!!!

-bump-

I justed wanted to add some more info.

I've been battling a chest cold for a couple weeks and had a big band rehearsal and quintet rehearsal back to back on Wed. night.  I know that if I were using my old mouthpiece that by the end of the 2nd practice I would have been really hurting, but with the Wedge I was able to practice effectively for almost 2 and 1/2 hours.

It really is a great piece of equipment.

Greg