Trevor Groom/John Clough mouthpieces?

[PHJ]

Hello everyone this is my first post here but I have lurked for many years. Thanks to everyone for their generosity with their knowledge. A little background. I am a former professional player ( Band of H M Royal Marines ) and now a retired music educator. I have always been curious about the mouthpieces that Mr Groom and Mr Clough were using at the time that they were a great influence on my concept of euphonium sound, late '60's and 70's. They both seem to have a very intense centred and ringing sound more so than the Wick 4AL that I used for about 40 years created. For health reasons which I won't bore you with the vibration feedback from the classic Wick shape is now proving difficult and I may need to change. I think I have seen pictures of Mr Groom from this time using a Bach mouthpiece with his New Standard euph eg. on the cover of the GUS Quartets for Brass LP. Does anyone have any info on this ? Also Mr Clough especially late 70's Dyke eg Triple Champions LP. I realise that a large part of the sound is the fact that they were using the older New Standard medium bore euph and an even larger part is that they are them! Just curious, does anyone have any info? Perhaps Messers Groom and Clough are out there?
Cheers Peter.

[davewerden]

Welcome to the forum! We have some folks who know more about this than I, so I hope they will chime in.

I can say that in general the player has a huge effect on the sound of the horn and mouthpiece.

...Bach mouthpiece with his New Standard euph eg. on the cover of the GUS Quartets for Brass LP.

I have that album, although I did not study the cover! The euphonium sound, as I recall, is really big and really dark. I suspect the recording techniques had something to do with that, but it is hard to know for sure.

Anyway, having either Groom or Clough as a concept-model is pretty darned good!

[PHJ]

Thanks for that Dave. I agree no matter how much I try to sound like Groom or Clough I always end up sounding like me😁

[Magikarp]

Good! I suspect that that particular sound has gone the way of all things - and I say that as a huge John Clough fan. I have multiple different sounds that I enjoy but don't try and emulate them, as it wouldn't be possible. As aside, I always thought John Clough and Trevor Groom had somewhat lighter sounds that Lyndon Baglin or Stephen Lord, but no less admirable, and I also thought it was less easy to "date" John Clough's sound - he played with a gentler vibrato than Trevor Groom, and his sound didn't change appreciably from 1968 through to his finish at Dyke in 1987ish.