Brass instrument practice mute customizer

thingiverse

The PrintBone practice mute is a compact instrument that plays with little resistance and sounds well on trombone, bass trombone, flugelhorn or trumpet. The partials are in tune and it is quite silent. I let several people test it, their comments: 'This one plays well in all registers. My store-bought practice mute doesn't.' 'This feels more like playing without a mute than my own practice mute.' 'This is actually in tune! I like the compact sound it produces.' A local teacher recommends these to his students and uses the trumpet version himself. Four versions are available: The small bore variant fits any trombone, at least from 7.5 inch bells up to 9.5-10 inch bass trombones. It raises the pitch by half a tone on smaller belled trombones and doesn't raise it much on larger ones. The large bore variant fits big horns like the Bach 42 and Conn 8H without raising the pitch too much. It also fits flugel horns and sounds bigger than the small bore variant. The bass trombone version fits bass trombones and mutes it considerably while preserving a nice sound. It is a bit louder than the other two options but should be enough for most situations. The trumpet version is for trumpets only. All three variants play in tune in all registers and sound well. You can customize this design to fit any brass instrument you want by changing almost every dimension and bell flare. This prints airtight without supports in PLA on my Prusa I3 MK2 in 2-6 hours, depending on quality. It works with ABS, PLA, NGEN, and PETG. NGEN and PETG seem to sound best. Print Settings: Printer: Original Prusa i3 MK2 Resolution: 0.1-0.3mm Infill: 20% Notes: Pick any layer height you like. Supports not needed. Set line width to 0.45 and check 'detect thin edges' in slic3r. Post-Printing: Glue a strip of cork, foam or rubber to the mute so it stays in the bell. The cork should form a relatively airtight seal, so all air passes through the mute and not between the mute and the bell.