I was wondering if someone could share their experience/insights around which mouthpieces 1) work/fit with an alto trombone and 2) among those, which brands and sizes seem to work well for you.

I've been doing searches on the web to get more informed on the basics. I have ordered a Miraphone alto trombone because I really want to explore this instrument. But it probably won't arrive for a month or so, so in the meantime, I'm wanting to consider what options I have around a mouthpiece for this horn. It does come with a miraphone mp, of course.

From what I'm gathering so far, it appears that an alto trombone uses a small shank trombone mouthpiece. So, it looks like I may be able to consider mouthpieces intended for tenor trombones.

I'm also going to go to a music store or two to see what I can learn as well, but from what I've read, there's an abundance of experience around alto and soprano trombones here.

I use a Claude Gordon Personal MP for the trumpet, and so a mouthpiece that is free blowing and that has a V cup tends to work well for me. I don't know if I'm going to be able to have a relatively similar setup on the alto trombone as things may be different, but that's my starting point for now.

I decided to explore all this after trying a used Jupiter Soprano trombone at a music store. I had a lot of fun with it and so I decided to order a Miraphone soprano and then after some thought, the alto.

Any views, opinions, advice would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks!

Michael

After reviewing more websites, I can see that the alto trombone does take a small shank trombone mouthpiece after all. There hasn't been a site that says this straight out, but by going over the various brands of trombone mps on the mouthpiece express website, they listed a couple of small shank trombone mouthpieces that are considered "good for alto trombone".

So that's good news LOL.

I ordered a Bach 5GS off of ebay and a Dennis Wick 6BS from the trumpet mouthpiece express website. The chart for the Dennis Wick small shank trombone mps mentions that their 10CS mp as an alto trombone mp. And it seems to me that a shallower cup is encouraged, however, that may not work for me as well, but we'll see.

During my searching, I did find this chart in case anyone here may find it useful. I also like to keep charts around just for a perspective. The WWBW brass catalog as a chart around the middle of the magazine, which also is nice to have around. And as far as comparison charts, I like the way the Trumpet Mouthpiece Express lists out all of each brand's mouthpieces so I can go through them -- wwbw doesn't provide as good of info online from what I've found.

http://www.ibowtie.com/mpccharts.html

Michael