PUMP UP THE VOLUME

Whether playing the Haydn Trumpet Concerto in E-flat or riffing to Lullaby in Birdland or A Night in Tunisia, the trumpet is one of the most recognizable sounds in the musical palette. Louis Armstrong's distinctive growl, the shout chorus of a Harry James chart or the trademark puffed cheeks of Dizzy Gillespie's bent horn have imprinted themselves on the public consciousness.

But despite the presence of so many truly great players, the trumpet remains an instrument that bedevils both the expert and non-expert alike. Dr. Dave Harrison, despite having played the trumpet for more than 35 years, is – by his own admission – a non-expert.

By day, he is a physician at Vancouver, British Columbia, General Hospital, where he runs the hospital's hyperbaric unit and specializes in hyperbaric and diving medicine. But at night, he dons his tuxedo and becomes principal trumpet for the Richmond, BC, Community Orchestra.

As a physician, Dr. Harrison is in a unique position to understand the physiology of trumpet playing. While most people think that the embouchure is primarily how a trumpet player forms his lips, he recognizes that the lips, tongue, cheeks, throat and other parts of the body work together to produce a trumpet's distinctive sound.

By most people's standards, this physician is an accomplished trumpet player and musician. "Despite years or even decades of experience and practice, at some point every player reaches the limits imposed by his ability and physiology," notes Dr. Harrison. He concluded, however, that there could be a way to push back those limitations by changing the shape of the trumpet mouthpiece.

Spurred on by an intense desire to not embarrass himself while playing Leonard Bernstein's formidable West Side Story, the doctor began testing his mouthpiece theory in April 2007. He started making small modifications in the profiles and lines of existing mouthpieces by hand and comparing their performance under comparable playing conditions.

Forty hand-made prototypes later, the doctor says, "I had a mouthpiece that improved tone and range and reduced fatigue. With one of my modified mouthpieces, a player can play longer and with greater range and improved tone."

By about June 2007 he realized he would need to use a CNC machine. "At first I planned to get a local manufacturer to reverse-engineer the rim based on a hand-made prototype, but it quickly became apparent that would not work," explains Dr. Harrison. So he bought a CAD program and a basic CNC machine and, after learning how to use them, spent the next several weeks designing and machining different versions of the prototype.

He experimented with seven different variables to create new prototypes. In September 2007, after creating 35 more, he and his brother evaluated them on a ten point scale. "We agreed on the best couple of rims," recalls Dr. Harrison. "Based on those few models, we came up with another new prototype model. We made that and continued tweaking them and making more."

In the following months, the doctor began working with a local machine shop he had already chosen to produce the mouthpieces for him. "The challenge was to construct a cutting model that would mill just the rim but still produce a surface that needed only minimum polishing. It had to keep cutting time as short as possible to minimize production costs," states Dr. Harrison.

Fixtures to hold the parts during the machining process had to be consistent to 0.001 in. After playing with and testing the finished parts, the doctor made a couple of minor changes, put up a website and started production at a local machine shop in October 2007.

As business picked up, he concluded that his original CNC machine was "inadequate" because he was spending more time troubleshooting the machine than he was designing or milling the actual parts. "I started a search for a new CNC mill. I wanted to do more R&D and custom work, so I needed a CNC mill that was flexible and affordable, but also robust enough to perform precision work on difficult materials such as stainless steel," says Dr. Harrison.

Research on the internet led him to Tormach LLC (Waunakee, WI). After speaking to the company and several of its customers, the doctor bought a PCNC 1100 and the Tormach Tooling System in September 2008. He uses the PCNC 1100, which sits in his basement office/workshop, for all of his prototyping and for custom orders.

"This mill easily met my requirements for accuracy, precision and repeatability, which is critical," notes Dr. Harrison. "In some dimensions, the change from one size of mouthpiece to the next may be only 0.005 in, so I need a machine that is rigid enough and strong enough to mill even tough materials like stainless steel and still give me exactly what I need." According to company engineers, the PCNC 1100 has repeatable accuracy to ±0.001 in/ft.

Each mouthpiece is machined from a solid block of material, usually brass or 304 stainless steel. After having it turned on a lathe to take it to its finished exterior dimensions, the doctor loads it onto the PCNC 1100 to mill the rim to the unique shape that gives the Wedge its distinctive qualities.

He uses a CR-5 collet system mounted in the mill's standard vice. The doctor created a variety of mandrels that fit into the collet, threaded to hold the various sizes of blanks. He simply threads a blank onto the mandrel, tightens it with a strap wrench, and turns on the mill.

To actually create the finished Wedge Mouthpiece, he uses either ¼ in or 1/8 in two- or four-flute carbide ball-end mills. He normally runs the mill at about 4,500 rpm at a feed rate of 15 ipm for brass and 10 ipm for stainless steel.

Completed brass mouthpieces are then sent out to be polished and gold- or silver-plated, which is the final step in the production process. Dr. Harrison loads stainless steel mouthpieces into a Tormach Duality lathe and polishes them with 600 grit emery cloth and jeweler's rouge. This lathe attaches to the bed of the PCNC 1100 and provides an affordable CNC lathe solution for small diameter turning – perfect for the doctor's mouthpieces.

Dr. Harrison creates his designs using RhinoCad and develops the actual toolpaths and machine code with RhinoCam. When he actually machines a part on the Tormach mill, he simply ports the program over to the PC-based controller software and hits the start button.

With production started and the mill in place for additional prototype research and design, the doctor expanded his website and set about marketing his creations. In the year or so since he started production, he has really pumped up the volume by developing a substantial Internet sales business that includes a following of artists who endorse his mouthpieces.

That's not all. The flexibility and ease in which he can create and prototype new designs have enabled the doctor to add more product lines. In addition to mouthpieces for the trumpet and its cousins, the cornet and flugelhorn, he has added mouthpieces for trombones and French horns and is now eyeing the tuba market.

"I've also been able to create a line of extensions for the trumpet mouthpieces that are named for my endorsing artists," smiles Dr. Harrison. "I have two new lines that are based on custom configurations created especially for them."

Either by phone or e-mail, Dr. Dave, as his customers call him, talks to every client before he ships their mouthpiece to make certain they have selected the right one for how and what they play. He even offers a two week money-back guarantee.

But that's something he generally doesn't need. Nine out of 10 customers who are sold in person keep their mouthpieces and eight of 10 Internet customers keep theirs.

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Rich Silverman is a technical writer in Painesville, OH.

Tormach LLC, 204 Moravian Valley Road, Suite N, Waunakee, WI 53597, 608-849-8381, Fax: 209-885-4534, www.tormach.com.