The model CR cup

This one has been a while in the making; the original G and GS when they launched were loved by Geyer and Hill players for the immediate response and ease with which they played.  As we added G models the line grew to cover everything from Schmidts to Paxmans to Yamahas but there was a problem.

The large bell, open lead pipe members of the family (particularly from Rauch and Lewis) didn’t always agree with the line. For some players and some examples the GS was fine and worked out, but it was inconsistent and imperfect.

Fast forward a few months and I was posed the question - could you make a very smooth mouthpiece with a very direct sound; essentially aim for a corner of the mouthpiece spectrum off of the standard “direct / smooth” trade.

So I got to designing; the first step was to give it that direct compact feel by narrowing the back bore which gives it that direct punch, especially around the beak below middle C.  A shallow cup was a must for the direct sound as well, but it shouldn’t break up too easily; with so many factors pushing it to be bright, we needed balance.   That’s where the Chicago-style bowl comes in - it’s darkens the sound for the same depth of cup.

With that in hand, the ingredients were all there - shallow cup with a narrow back bore to create the ultra-direct feeling we wanted, opened up to a #12 throat to give the smooth slurs and transitions.

Now - it’s probably unsurprising that the working title of the pieces was “GR” and not “CR” - so what makes this Chicago-inspired mouthpiece worthy of the label of a mouthpiece for everyone?  Well we had some clues this might work - the cup isn’t so different from the Model LA if you took away the intonation trickery of that model.  And in fact some had remarked that they liked the LAs on their Lewises down in LA.  When the first pieces came out a friend stopped by with his 8D and loved it - it’s also now our recommendation for Schmidt-style horns.  With all that we felt it appropriate to promote it to a C series. Testing is underway on a Mainz-shank version so more to come there.

Many thanks to Dan Wions for the extended loan of his Rauch as a test horn and to Bob Ward for posing the question to me in the first place.