Well tonight i tried out a Kelly Lexan plastic mouthpiece designed on the famous old Mount Vernon Vincent Bach series, you know the ones that sell for riduculous amounts of money on ebay. I have to say the kelly mouthpiece should not work, they are light, made of plastic and they come in insane colours from mustard yellow to strawberry whirl , what can i say, i tried one this evening and i was quite simply blown away by it. I have just ordered two of them for myself in cystal green and clear. All i can say is they are a breakthrough in modern technology and they are fantastic for the price, a fraction of what a decent metal mouthpiece would set you back. Check out their web site to see the colours and more info-

http://www.kellymouthpieces.com/

ive one, well for cornet and one for trumpet, very good - they work very well in the cold - my one is clear - so i can check my embouchure, but that means it get grimy looking very quickly - a good mouthpice for a good price.

Today my order arrived, two kelly mouthpieces, a clear 12C and a crystal green 6 1/2 AL, it was immediately apparent that the 6 1/2 AL had more power and volume, the 12C had a slight edge in that it has a slightly brighter sound. I took them along to the jazz outfit i'm playing with at the moment, flute, trombone, double bass, electric guitar and drums. Yeah its an odd set up for modern jazz but for some strange reason it works. Everyone in the group said the new pieces looked cool but did'nt change the way i sound which was good i thought, its funny my trombone case felt so much lighter with the new pieces. I wish i had discovered these sooner.

I also noticed that i can play longer solos without fatigue, i like to try some way out stuff with this set up i'm playing with at present like adding delay and chorus or flanger to my trombone which is mic'd up through a PA, any way the mainpoint for me is that these new mouthpieces are great and are excellantly priced. Brass players go buy one now!

12C, is that very shallow?

Yes i'd say so, its pretty much a standard piece and popular too if you play in a big band, the 11C is also pretty similar, both aid in higher notes. Matter of preference really. I hear Kelly have a 11C in the pipe line.

do they, i might get one, i've been looking for a mouthpice for jazz band, but i dont want to fork out on an expensive metal one, i might just get one of those...

I got one for my cornet, but personally I hate the feel of it on my lips and find it uncomfortable to play. It might sound strange, but to me it feels as if it almost sticks to my lips - a metal mouthpiece is really smooth and I can move it around as I like, but the my Kelly mouthpiece just doesn't feel the same.

Its funny i found the opposite to be the case for me, i played with both Kellys i own this morning at our Saturday Big Band rehearsal and found them to be equally comfy, i changed mouthpieces on the basis of the tune we were playing, on ballads i used the 6 1/2 AL and on rockier numbers or more up beat tunes the 12 C for its edgy sound. I do wonder if part of the success with the kelly for me is my flexible embouchure?

i think having a flxible embourchure helps, if you are used to one mouthpiece then some aspects of playing can be hard, as ive grown up in a family where different sized instruments are used ive got used to changing mouthpice regularly- when i change between the kelly mouthpices i have i am able to notice a large difference in the areas of playing they benefit. - they are definately very good for say playing a slow and low balad as a solo in school concet, then going to the school jazz band and playing some screaming high stuff - by switiching mouthpices in between then both of these aspects could become easier - and with the kelly mouthpices a trumpet player shouldn't have to warm up as much in between.

I tried a plastic mouthpiece for 30 minutes about this time last year - and I hated it!
The rim was really thin. I don't think the design of the horn ones are very good.
The only good thing about the plastic mouthpiece was the temperature - instantly warm at first touch.

If they made a plastic mouthpiece based on the Paxman mouthpieces then I'd definitely give it another go.

hornplayer x

I do wonder about the bias brass players have to change, its very unlike woodwind players who seem obsessed with various reed, ligature and mouthpiece set ups, from metal to plastic/ebonite mouthpieces and a vast array of synthetic reeds from Legerre to less familar brands. I think the brass community has a bit of catching up to do, as you can see from my signature i have a foot in many camps, i like the Kellys, i can change from my 12C to 6 1/2 AL more or less straight away with no warming up or calibrating time during pieces. I guess as you've tried one you're already in a good position to judge it however i wonder about howmuch of the objections are preconcieved bias versus trad. Just my 5 pennys worth

I did mention a good point about the plastic mouthpiece, I disliked the very thin rim!

My opinion was that the design of the rim wasn't great, the idea of plastic is ingenius. The immediate warm touch has obvious benefits, I just felt the rim was uncomfortable to play on.

Perhaps I should change my last comment to "I would definitely give the plastic mouthpiece another go if they changed the rim." ?

just my humble opinion

This is a bit of an odd question, but hornplayer, would you be able to measure the rim width for me? (And is it the MC or the MDC?) I'm considering getting one and it would be interesting to know about the rim width before I make the decision as I know the widths of the rims on my other mouthpieces and could compare them. Thanks!

I don't own a plastic mouthpiece, I just tried one out at a horn day in Leeds last year.
Sorry. No idea what the rim width is, but it might say on the website. The address is at the start of the thread.

this is the spec page, though I don't know enough about mouthpieces to know if it tells you what you need to know.

I've been poking around the site for a while, but no luck finding out the rim width sadly. Irritating as they do seem to have just about everything else!

Might be worth emailing them.

Another problem i find with some brass players is that its very hard to come to terms with the fact that a cheap well designed plastic mouthpiece costing wait for it......approximately $11 on their web site thats about £5 to us, sounds as good as a quality brand metal mouthpiece you would buy for around £60 here in the UK. I recently checked out what other pro's, teachers & students have thought of the Kelly mouthpiece on the trombone forum i occasionally frequent and it gets generally very positive comments particularly from players who play outdoors a lot.

I was given a kelley trumpet mouthpiece as a christmas present one year and it felt different to play with than my metal ones but I soon got used to it. It's great for playing outdoors, most members of a band I know use them, and I think it feels slightly softer on the lips. and I agree with TenorClef - "also noticed that i can play longer solos without fatigue"

I have a Kelly 5G plastic mouthpiece for euphonium.

It is great for the cold!

I love mine, I used it on my cornet.