Soulo SM5100 Bass Trombone Bucket Mute - 10 Inch Bells

Selecting the mute based on sound is said to be a very personal thing. For me, they all sound quite similar. Sound was not a deciding factor.You might want to consider two other factors: weight and ease of handling.EASE OF HANDLING - In general, the mutes are a little too fat to be able to grasp securely with one hand. It leads to concern about dropping the mute, especially about dropping the mute and denting the trombone’s slide.Soulo – For safe handling, I liked this mute best of the group, because its base has a round ring on the bottom that facilitates grasping.Yamaha – This mute has an indentation in the bottom that facilitates handling. Grasping is almost as secure as the Soulo. All four mutes needed some finishing polishing to eliminate abrasive or sharp edges; the Yamaha was a little better that the others in this regard.Lot Fancy – This mute is rather fat and awkward to handle. This mute was the least expensive.Jo-Ral 1B – This mute was the fattest of the group and most awkward to grasp.WEIGHT - All of the mutes claim to be light-weight. This is important to a trombonist because the mute adds weight which tends to temp the right hand to help to support the front-end weight. The Jo-Ral 1B was the heaviest mute. Below are the actual weights and the costs when I purchased the mutes.Lot Fancy = 146g, 5.1oz = $29.70Jo-Ral 1B = 301g, 10.6oz = $82.67Soulo = 151g, 5.4oz = $69.95Yamaha = 153g, 5.4oz = $49.04CONCLUSIONI selected and kept the Soulo. I used a polishing cloth to eliminate the rough edges, but all four mutes need improvement in that aspect.

Recently, I purchased a new Soulo adjustable cup mute. I like the Soulo cup mute very much! It produces a nice bright tone (when the mute is as open as possible) and, of course, a good "cupier" tone when it's as closed tight as possible. I find the pitch to be accurate in all octaves without adjustment, whether the slide-able cup is in, out, or midway. BTW, the pitch is good and the timbre remains the same all the way down to lowest F#. I compared the Soulo to my Denis Wick adjustable cup (which also maintains good pitch and the same core tone in all ranges). The Wick model produces a little more "ahh" in the timbre, the Soulo a bit more "ay" (as in hay) to my ear. I figure that's because the Soulo cup is made of hardened fiber and the Wick cup is aluminum (I think) of a sturdy thickness. I like both of the former cups over my (old) Humes&Berg stone-lined and Ray Robinson cups, neither of which are adjustable, of course, and both of which get stuffy and lose the pitch center below low C unless one files the corks to find a perfect fit, and even then the tone and pitch is funkier by degrees below low C. On the other hand, the H&B cup still is the most commonly used cup in a big band or swing band context; maybe that's because tpt players have simply kept that cup in their bag or case forever! Remember these are merely my own perceptions. All 4 of these models produce somewhat different timbres, and, well, each to his own and each is right in a given situation. With the adjustable cup models, one can obtain myriad timbres by sliding the cup in or out, all the way in, for instance, for a particular and moody color when close-miked. (There's no end to this. Find and watch a video of the old Duke Ellington band and study the mutes the tpt section used for different colors; it's instructive!) But I'm switching my Wick out of my case in favor of the new Soulo for now as my "steady eddie".

This is an outstanding cup mute. It works very well in legitimate settings but really shines in solo and jazz roles. The adjustable cup gives you at least two totally unique tone colors, and possibly a third if you find the exact spot midway on the mute. I found the intonation to be excellent for a cup mute and the mute works very well for close mic'ed situations or as background under another soloist or singer. The mute is quite light, making it very easy to maintain your playing position and posture. I have owned more H&B cup mutes than I can count and have also used the Denis Wick mute. The Wick is much better for intonation purposes and offers some of the same tonal color gradation due to the adjustable cuff. I do not use the Wick mute in a section unless the other players are using one as well because the tone is too different from the others. I was able to humor the Soulo mute to blend with ether the H&B and Wick mutes. This is now my first choice cup mute and I highly recommend it.

I got this mute on the high recommendation of a few professional orchestra players after looking for a new straight mute. It is the best straight mute I've played by far! I was looking for a new straight mute after taking a lesson with a principal player of a major orchestra in preparation for a music festival I was playing at with repertoire such as Mahler 1 and a Pops program with Lots of straight mute. He asked about my mute I had at the time(Tom Crown aluminum) and took out a couple other straight mutes for me to try including the Soulo mute. Once I started playing the Soulo mute I realized how much more efficient and loud I could be(especially on the Mahler passages) that my previous mute did not let me do without forcing. I was immediately hooked and ordered it for myself. After playing Mahler 1 this past week I can definitely say this is the best overall straight mute I've used! It's perfect for the loud Mahler passages All the way to the MP passages(although anything softer is reserved for my Trumcor style straight) if I only had one straight mute, it would be this one! Props to Soulo for creating an excellent mute!