What is the Wedge?
The Wedge trumpet mouthpiece originated as an act of desperation on the part of an amateur trumpet player (me) who was trying to avoid public humiliation as the principal trumpet for the performance of West Side Story by the Richmond Community Orchestra.
By using basic anatomy and physiology, recognized theories about why some players have better "natural" high chops, and a fair bit of trial and error, the original Wedge prototype was born as a modification of an existing mouthpiece rim.
The Design
The design has since evolved significantly from the hand made versions introduced at the 2007 ITG conference in Amherst, Massachusetts. The current Wedge is manufactured from a solid brass or 304 surgical stainless steel blank using state of the art Computer Numeric Controlled (CNC) lathing and milling. Each mouthpiece is designed to exacting specifications using RhinoCAD design software with tolerances to 0.001 inches. The surface produced by the CNC machine requires very little processing prior to final plating, which avoids inconsistencies introduced by hand buffing.
The cross sectional contour of every Wedge rim is identical to every other Wedge mouthpiece of any size, down to a point 0.08 inches below the crest of the rim. Mouthpieces of larger and smaller rim diameters are scaled up or down in 0.01 inch increments, while retaining this same rim shape, cross sectional contour, and distance between the inner diameter of the cup and outer diameter of the rim. This means that switching from a shallow to deep cup within the same rim size, or between rim sizes, produces a very consistent feel from one mouthpiece to another.
The Wedge design takes advantage of a modular backbore system, allowing the player to perfectly match the ideal combination of mouthpiece tops and trumpet or cornet backbores for every playing situation. Wedge backbores come in sizes Small, Medium, Medium Large, and Large in 27 and 25 throats. Warburton backbores, and any other backbore using the common 3/8-40 thread can also be used.