About the PrintBone practice mute
Practice mutes let brass players practise quietly, but many cheap ones play stuffily or out of tune. This printed one is designed to play with little resistance, sound well and keep its partials in tune. Testers said it felt more like playing open than their own mutes. A local teacher recommends it to students, and a German review compared the trumpet version favourably with three commercial mutes.
There are four versions. The small-bore one fits most trombones, from 7.5-inch bells up to bass trombones. It barely changes the pitch on small horns but raises a bass trombone by about a semitone. The large-bore one suits big-belled horns and flugelhorns. A dedicated bass trombone version mutes strongly while keeping the tone, and a trumpet version rounds out the set. The customiser lets you change almost any dimension to suit another instrument.
After printing, glue a strip of cork, foam or rubber round the mute so it seals in the bell. All the air should go through the mute, not round it. Wrap paper or masking tape round the mute to make a template for the strip.
Who it's for. Any brass player. It pairs naturally with the PrintBone trombone.
What you'll need
Printed parts
- The mute for your instrument (one part)
Bought parts
- A strip of cork, foam or rubber
- Glue
Tools
- Paper or masking tape for a template
Build overview
Print settings
- Layer height: 0.1 to 0.3 mm
- Supports: None
- Walls: Enough perimeters to need no infill, or 20–35% infill
- Line width: 0.45 mm with 'detect thin edges' (3 lines with a 0.4 nozzle)
- Material: PETG or nGen sound best; PLA and ABS work
Photos
All photos: PieterB, from the design page on Printables, licensed CC BY-NC-SA. We resized them and converted them to WebP. These adapted versions are shared under the same licence.
1 more photo on Printables ↗