About Stainless Steel

Why stainless steel?

Comfort for the Chops: We've all been there - a long hard gig or practice session and the chops begin to swell and possibly show some reddness. The upper range begins to disappear but, we play on, using tired lip muscles differently, shifting the jaw position, and even using our back up mouthpiece one size larger to accomodate the "swollen face" in an effort to maintain our original performance. Ultimately, we've ended up with a different embouchure than what we began with. The challenging part is putting the metal to your face the following day. Any remaining swelling or tissue bruising are a painful reminder of over playing. The best and least expensive antidote is rest and more rest when practicing.

The next best solution is to consider a stainless steel rim, top, or complete mouthpiece. Stainless has excellent wetting properties and doesn't grab or stick to the skin like silver. Arguably, it allows for freer lip vibration than gold plate. The H-Kote coatings enhance these properties and have about 1/2 the coefficient of friction of polished stainless. Endurance degrades far less quickly after long hours of playing because you are not "fighting" the metal or shifting the embouchure. Swelling, bruising and tenderness are vastly reduced.

Clarity/Core: When you A/B stainless and brass mouthpieces, there is noticeable clarity and core to the sound with the stainless piece. Stainless is an efficient transmitter of vibration into the instrument. Notes center more easily than on brass mouthpieces and do not brake up or lose center when playing loud. Stainless is an ideal solution when you need to project or cut through.

Durability/Hypo-allergenic: Much harder than brass-superior resistance to scratches and dents. Unlike plated brass, stainless has nothing to wear off. The player can't be exposed to zinc which is responsible for many allergic reactions to brass even with the plating in tact.

H-Kote^TMready: If you want to fine tune the feel of the metal on you chops, have metal allergies and are lookin for a remedy, or simply want a cool cosmetic look, check out the H-Kote page.

What type of stainless do we use--is it surgical?

If I were to order "surgical" stainless from my metal supplier they would have no idea which alloy I needed. The term "surgical" is not a specific alloy, simply an application to which several stainless alloys may be suited. It is more accurately a marketing term used by manufacturers of stainless medical products.

For example, scalpels are typically made from alloy 416 while cardiac pacemaker bodies are made with 316. Both can be considered "surgical" alloys and come in contact with body fluids. 416 contains iron and can be honed to hold a sharp edge but would decompose quickly if left inside the body. Conversely 316 has great corrosion resistance but can't be honed to hold a durable edge.

We use alloy 304 in our mouthpieces as well as Loud Mouthpieces and Sidey SSH Mouthpieces. 304 has excellent corrosion resistance and good machining characteristics.