The Wedge

Okay, I admit it.  I'm a gear-head.  I love the tools and toys that come with playing the horn.  I love having the latest stand light and mute and hand grip and all those goodies.  Oh yes, and I'm a mouthpiece junkie.

I have a lot of mouthpieces.  Yes, I spend an inordinate amount of time on the Wheel of Doom, but as I'm still sort of still getting used to the Paxman, I will be on the Wheel for a bit longer.

Back in the day I was all about the Giardinelli.  I have a number of different cups, but I always used the Chambers rim.   When I started to get my chops back after my hiatus, I started with the Wick, but later moved to the Laskey, since it came in larger sizes.  Slowly I went from huge to just on the big side.  I've settled on the Laskey 75G, which is more or less their "middle of the road" all-purpose mouthpiece.  It's still a little on the large side compared to the Giardinelli, but it's serving me well.

Granted, I have spent some time with the IYM, which is also a very good mouthpiece.  But I've always landed back to the Laskey 75G.

And now comes the Wedge.  The whole concept is pretty funky - having a rim that's curved.  I liked that it was a little thicker than the Laskey.  As much as I like the Laskey, as soon as I started to get tired, my bottom lip would start curling out.  A thicker rim would help keep it in place.  Being that I'm into fads, I jumped at the Wedge.

My first Wedge was the Eric Reed edition.  I thought it was pretty cool, but too much of a pea-shooter for my taste.  Next I went with one of their Moosewood models, but this time I went with the plastic model to save $100 or so.  It's not bad, but still not me.

So finally I went for their L75G, which is based on the Laskey 75G (sound familiar)?

It's going to take some getting used to, but it's pretty interesting.  It gives me a slightly darker tone than the Laskey, but it equals the Laskey WITH the Tuning Sleeve.  I went side by side with a sound test.  This time I went with 4 different variations.  It was the IYM vs the Wedge L75G vs the Laskey 75G vs the Laskey 75G with the Tuning Sleeve.

The winner: The Wedge.  The tone was clear than all the others, even though the Laskey without the Sleeve felt like it was clearer.

The downside of the Wedge is that the extreme high register is a little airy.  This may take some getting used to.

So right now I'm doing the annual Christ the King show, and I'll use the Wedge to give it a thorough shake-down.  If it works out, I won't be unhappy!