OK, since I'm in facebook jail (again), I'll post here... Straight mutes - I generally hate them. The one I find most tolerable is my Tom Crown copper bottom. (It's a funny thing, but copper seems to help me with mutes, and yet even though I love the look of a copper horn, I can't get the sound I imagine out of most of them.) Otherwise, I don't really mind any other kind of mute. I love my Jo-Ral Copper Bubble. I love my brown leather Easy Bucket. I love my Warburton Woody cup. I believe there's a particular place in the jazz repertoire for my old H&B cup and bucket as well. I use a 5" plunger that perfectly matches my bell. I used to use a Vacchiano aluminum harmon; I find it unremarkable, but I keep it around. My old Vacchiano Straight mute got traded for a pencil, LOL - I always hated it. But the WORST mute I ever had was the first one I ever got, which was the old Harmon-brand straight/cup/wah "combo" mute. An interesting, economical idea, but it was a nuclear disaster! I disliked ALL the sounds it got, and then it would come apart on me at the worst possible time.
