The Tom Crown Modal A straight mute is an adopted member of the Tom Crown mute family. It is an almost exact copy of the Magosy & Buscher Non Pareil (unrivaled) straight mute. The Model A is not an exact copy as it has no pop up cork holders and the cone is cut off rather than rolled over. The Magosy & Buscher was the mute of choice of many symphonic and jazz players from when it was introduced and then patented in 1926 and 1929 in New York by Rudolf .Magosy and the, unknown to us, Mr.Buscher. My introduction to this mute was in 1948 when Adolph Bud Herseth arrived in Chicago to play first trumpet with the Chicago Symphony orchestra. The Non Pareil mute was his straight mute, and after hearing him play for the first time iI had to have a C trumpet and a Non Pareil. Many years later, when I was already making my own mutes, Bud asked me to make a copy of the Non Pareil. He wanted to have a back up mute and to have some for his students. I had my metal spinner make several. Bud weighed his original Non Pareil and a copy on a kitchen scale and the weight was identical as was the response intonation and sound. He gave it his OK.
I don’t think Bud ever knew that Tricky Sam Nanton, trombone soloist with Duke Ellington’s band in the late 1920s used the Non Pareil trumpet mute. It fit far into the trombone bell underneath a rubber plunger mute. The purpose of the Non Pareil was to stabilize intonation and to help make Tricky Sam’s typical snarl.
We sell about two hundred of these mutes a year, some to trombone soloists and the rest to trumpeters.
Thanks to vintage mute expert Kid Dutch EIndhoven for copies of the patent papers, and advice on the Non Pareil. Visit his web page at www.vintagemutes.com