Talk:Mouthpiece (brass)

This article used to be a very good article. It was promoted on 18 October 2007 and demoted on 19 February 2008. This means the community feels this article was written very well, but is not now. You may see the vote that promoted the article here. You may see the vote that demoted the article here.

This article used to be a good article. It was promoted on 19 February 2008 and demoted on 17 May 2009. This means the community feels this article was written very well, but is not now. You may see the vote that promoted the article here. You may see the vote that demoted the article here.

Proposed demotion from GA

1. References:
   1. [1] doesn't link to anything appropriate
   2. [2] leads to what appears to be a student thesis - pedigree?
   3. [3] leads to "site not avaiable"
   4. [4] gives a 404 error
   5. [5] is no longer used as defined, i.e. the hosting ISP now uses it for advertising.
   6. [6] see [5]
   7. [7] see [5]
   8. [9] links to a sales website, not really encyclopedic
2. Some poor prose...
   1. "Larger mouthpieces are used on larger instruments, and smaller ones are used on smaller instruments." or "stating the bleedin' obvious".
   2. "but the notes that they play do not sound as good."- subjective without citation.
   3. "For a very small amount of people who can afford it," - not really relevant. Just state "Rarely, mouthpieces can be gold plated which is expensive" or similar
3. Things that need linking or explaining:
   1. Lower and higher sounds.
   2. Player
   3. "do not let a player play for a long time" how?
   4. Semi-spherical
   5. diameter
   6. " Gold does not smudge, "
4. Some of the table (used to be) referenced, most of it isn't. Needs work.
5. "Silver-plating" or "silver plating"?
6. All three See also are already linked in the article.
7. Second image caption seems to ignore the fact there are two mouthpieces in the image...
8. Second external link is as [5].

The Rambling Man (talk) 14:28, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

Opinion expressed as fact

When the author speaks about brass mouthpiece plating, he or she presents information as fact when it is actually constantly debated among professional brass players.

These sections are questionable:

Some players gold plate their brass mouthpieces, or cover them with a thin layer of gold. This makes the sound of the instrument better than with any other mouthpiece.[8] For some people that are allergic to silver, this is the best (but not cheapest) way to play a brass instrument without getting sick. Gold does not smudge, so it only has to be cleaned with soap and water once in a while.

and

Silver plating is almost always used on brass mouthpieces because it does not cost too much money and a silver-plated mouthpiece helps a player make a pretty good sound. Silver plating is not as expensive as gold, but it is sometimes very important to have if a player plays a certain way. Silver-plate gives a clearer sound than gold and is good for styles of playing that need a lot of volume. Also, silver needs to be cleaned more often because it smudges easily.

Though the author cites Campbell, Murray; Greated, Clive; Myers, Arnold (2004). Musical Instruments. Oxford University Press. pp. p. 179. ISBN 0-1981-6504-8 as an authoritative source, there is no objective data supporting the claim that the sound of the instrument is influenced by the plating of the mouthpiece. My personal experience in talking with other professional brass players and in talking with technicians while ordering mouthpieces or the re-plating of existing mouthpieces suggests that players choose gold-plating because they believe it has a "softer" feel, because they believe it lasts longer in contact with the acid from the skin, because they suffer less skin irritation with gold, and because they prefer its appearance. Seldom does anyone suggest that it changes the sound of the instrument.

Tboneman51 (talk) 03:46, 21 March 2013 (UTC)