Best Lead Mouthpieces for Trumpet?

Over the years of investigations and pondering about sound, range, easyness and  endurance regarding trumpet playing I landed on 4 mouthpieces:

„Groovin High“ (Maynard Ferguson Caliccio copy from Mark Curry)

„LynnFlex“ (Stomvi USA) Lynn Nicholson

„JimFlex“ (Stomvi USA) Jim Manley

and the new Curry JM Z14 (Jim Manley)

My absolut favourite today is the Curry JM Z14! But why?

If you like a strong „sizzle“ in the sound all over the range and easyness and relaxed playing, this is the one for you!

There are some basic design factors who make this work:

All pieces have the rim shape from Maynards pieces over the Years before the Holton and Jet-Tone areas: narrow rim (about .620“), very high alpha angle, shallow v-cup and small bore (about 25-26). Exception: the modern JM Z14 has same rim and high alpha angle but the end of the cup is concave shaped, shallower and the bore is a 30.

Mark Curry about JM Z14:

„At 31 thou from the top of the rim, the GH is actually a bit smaller on

the ID at about .620",the z14 is about .622"

All that is very misleading as the real change happens about .125" into

the cup, where the z14 has a distinct concave section which is probably

better for creating resistance for the lips to vibrate in all registers.

Also helping resistance is the loose 30 throat.“

What about is Mark speaking here? He describes the construction details for a super efficient high compression trumpet mouthpiece.  Those are designd to utilize the oft non believed physics of the generation of trumpet sound: it is not a lip buzz generating the sound, not a complete close-open of the lip aperture within the mouthpiece of the embouchure, but the sympathetic wave reflection from the horn getting the lips to vibrate. This was first recognized and presented by William Adam.

He put some airstream without buzz into a mouthpiece while simultaneously connecting it with the horn: suddenly the sound appeared and vice versa.

So for all who trust in buzzing the lips or the mouthpiece or even the leadpipe: that is not how trumpet sound is generated. Trumpetsound is a complex feedback system.

That is what Mark puts in his new design: to get more resistance using a very shallow cup with concave structure for more lip room and a 30 throat/bore. The rim design from Maynard stayed proofed to support the „unfolding“ of the lips.

If you are a lip intrusion player - mostly the majority of trumpet players - using big mouthpieces and puckering the lips into the cup, this piece will not work for you! If you experience bottoming out on shallower equipment, then you are not ment to take something like that unless you are looking for an optimisation of your embouchure.

The good side of this: if you can handle shallower mouthpieces then you can play deeper ones as well. This works not the other way around. So, if you don‘t like to much Sizzle in the sound but more a mellow legit sound, then you can take even a smaller rim diameter but with a deeper cup instead. Those are not off the shelf but can be ordered as custom work. Normaly narrow rims are combined with shallow cups for lead sound.

So I hope this may help to get trumpet playing more easy and with more fun.

PS. Jim Manley recorded his last disc with the Curry JM Z14 - worth for listening:

„Short Stories & Tall Tales Vol 2“ (2024)