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Thread: Finally tried LeFreque plates

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Dec 2015
    Location
    Varese,Italy
    Posts
    384
    I have been using them for about a year now on BE 2052 and I really appreciate the sound of my euphonium with them. Recently I removed them for to clean the horn: it seemed to play another instrument!

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    2007 Besson Prestige 2052, 3D+ K&G mouthpiece; JP373 baritone, 4B modified K&G mouthpiece; Bach 42GO trombone, T4C K&G mouthpiece; 1973 Besson New Standard 3 compensated valves, 3D+ K&G modified mouthpiece; Wessex French C tuba, 3D+ K&G modified mouthpiece.

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    West Palm Beach, FL
    Posts
    3,853
    Interesting. You're using more plates than I've seen used before. You have two on the lead-pipe and also on the top bow. I use just the one medium sized plate (41mm in silver) across mpc and the receiver.

    Is the high Bb concert (treble clef C#) easier with the small plate on the 2nd slide?
    Last edited by RickF; 12-10-2017 at 01:27 PM.
    Rick Floyd
    Miraphone 5050 - Warburton BJ / RF mpc
    YEP-641S (recently sold)
    Doug Elliott - 102 rim; I-cup; I-9 shank


    "Always play with a good tone, never louder than lovely, never softer than supported." - author unknown.
    Symphonic Band of the Palm Beaches
    El Cumbanchero (Raphael Hernandez, arr. Naohiro Iwai)
    Chorale and Shaker Dance
    (John Zdechlik)

  3. #13
    Join Date
    Dec 2015
    Location
    Varese,Italy
    Posts
    384
    I buy the plates, as recommended by Steven Mead in his video.(Red brass which I then made silver plated).Later I bought two other 76 mm plates for the trombone. I rarely use it(I do not feel a real difference with them), so I tried to put them on the euphonium (Misa Mead has a double plates on the lead pipe), and the other I put it as reinforcement on the top bow. Sincerely I think that the smaller one on the second slide is useless. The high C# with the plates seems to come out better, but it is a mystery: there are some days that this note sound splendidly and others, without an apparent reason, that can not be achieved. For this note I use 1-4+trigger, which has a secure center point (you have to push it a little, otherwise a natural C comes out).
    Last edited by franz; 10-12-2020 at 05:57 PM.
    2007 Besson Prestige 2052, 3D+ K&G mouthpiece; JP373 baritone, 4B modified K&G mouthpiece; Bach 42GO trombone, T4C K&G mouthpiece; 1973 Besson New Standard 3 compensated valves, 3D+ K&G modified mouthpiece; Wessex French C tuba, 3D+ K&G modified mouthpiece.

  4. #14
    Join Date
    Dec 2015
    Location
    Varese,Italy
    Posts
    384
    Hi everyone,
    after removing the LefreQue plates about a month ago, now I have put them back. It seems to me that with LefreQue I am better able to center the notes in the various dynamics. I might just be a feeling because I am psychologically led to think that the plates improve my sound. The fact is that before using LefreQues the high C# was very difficult to obtain ( for me); with them it has become like all the other notes. When I took them off month ago, the high C# was still obtainable. Perhaps this may be due to the fact that the instrument has adapted to resonate at that frequency, such as playing all the notes of the scale with the fourth valve pressed, bringing the key of the instrument to F. At the beginning some notes will sound strange, but with time and practice they will sounb better and better, becoming almost the same as those normally played in Bb. I would like to know what you think about it.
    Last edited by franz; 10-12-2020 at 06:19 PM.
    2007 Besson Prestige 2052, 3D+ K&G mouthpiece; JP373 baritone, 4B modified K&G mouthpiece; Bach 42GO trombone, T4C K&G mouthpiece; 1973 Besson New Standard 3 compensated valves, 3D+ K&G modified mouthpiece; Wessex French C tuba, 3D+ K&G modified mouthpiece.

  5. #15
    Regarding the C#, here is my theory: The plates helped to make the C# more stable. Consequently, you learned to play the C#. Now that you have learned to play the C#, you no longer need the plates! Sort of like removing the training wheels off a bicycle (:-)

  6. #16
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Central North Carolina
    Posts
    2,368
    I've had the same experience with mouthpieces -- both in terms of using a smaller piece to get a note and then going back to the larger one, and using a larger piece to get the (low) note and then going back to the smaller one. And this across tubas, euphs, and trombones. Or sometimes just a DIFFERENT mouthpiece, even of roughly the same size.

    With mouthpieces, it's easier to speculate rationally about what the cause of such differences is. But I think that in general any small (even perhaps consciously imperceptible) difference in how the horn feels, vibrates, whatever, can make that kind of difference. In such cases it's usually a stretch to say that the change makes the HORN perform better, but ... whatever works. As I say, I've had the experience more than once and then gone back to the "old" mouthpiece because it was in fact a better choice and fit for me.
    Gary Merrill
    Wessex EEb Bass tuba (DW 3XL or 2XL)
    Mack Brass Compensating Euph (DE N106, Euph J, J9 euph)
    Amati Oval Euph (DE 104, Euph J, J6 euph)
    1924 Buescher 3-valve Eb tuba (with std US receiver), Kelly 25
    Schiller American Heritage 7B clone bass trombone (DE LB K/K10/112/14 Lexan, Brass Ark MV50R)
    1947 Olds "Standard" trombone (Olds #3)

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