[Dixielandjazz] Brass poisoning? Or metal allergy?

[ross anderson]

G`day Will and all,
I passed the query re mouthpieces on to our Trobone Player and his responce
is below ,
Take care and best wishes, Ross Anderson ,N.M.J.B.

Dear Ross
Through my 50 years of brass education I have come up to the problem of
brass "poisoning" quite often.
It doesn't matter if it's poisoning or allergy, it's still serious. Luckily
the problem usually goes away on it's own when you stop playing on brass.
Brass players should never play on actual brass mouthpieces. The mouthpiece
should always be plated with a less harmful plating. Now what should we
plate with?
All metals have their own taste, so each player should experiment  by
tasting 1 SILVER  2 GOLD 3 CHROMIUM 4 NICKEL. Most other metals can cause
medical problems. Keep clear of brass, copper, pewter, lead etc. as these
always taste dreadful apart from the allergy or poisoning potential. (Nickel
has been known to cause problems but only rarely)
When you have chosen your favourite taste, have your mouthpiece plated by a
reputable instrument repairer in that metal and as soon as it starts to wear
off - have it plated again.
Why does it wear off?
I suppose we could have our plater apply a thick coating of our chosen metal
to make it run for longer (or forever), However this is not the way to go as
the original designer of the mouthpiece has usually perfected it to
incredibly small tollerances,
If you plate too thickly you are changing the parameters and therefore the
original design of the mouthpiece. It is important to plate at minimal
thickness so the original design is not compromised.
Another thing to consider is the reliability and skill of the plater, the
plating can be pretty straight forward but the preparation ie the buffing
down before plating can completely ruin the mouthpiece if too much is
removed. (This has actually happened to me, however the plater was quite ok
when he got out of hospital)
Lastly, your taste can change over time, in my case, years ago I didn't like
gold and always used silver (by the way, gold and silver should be your
premium choices because they can plate thinner than chromium), about 5 years
ago I started to like gold and have since replated all my working
mouthpieces with gold. I have a huge collection of mouthpieces, so I find it
easy to compare one with another.
If your friends have any further questions I give permission for them to
contact me direct and I'll be most willing to help.
Thankyou
Kind Regards
Don S
Don Santin
donsan at alphalink.com.au
----- Original Message -----
From: "Will Connelly" <willc at highstream.net>
To: "Nancy Giffin" <nancyink at ulink.net>
Cc: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 12, 2004 11:14 AM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Brass poisoning? Or metal allergy?


> I have heard of brass players suffering from brass poisoning but never
> experienced it myself. The historically touted solution, as you
> reported,  is to replate all the mouthpieces one uses with gold or silver.
> kindly,
> will connelly
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz

----- Original Message -----
From: "Will Connelly" <willc at highstream.net>
To: "Nancy Giffin" <nancyink at ulink.net>
Cc: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 12, 2004 11:14 AM
Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] Brass poisoning? Or metal allergy?


> I have heard of brass players suffering from brass poisoning but never
> experienced it myself. The historically touted solution, as you
> reported,  is to replate all the mouthpieces one uses with gold or silver.
> kindly,
> will connelly
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz