Helix Brass Mouthpieces Inc.
The company I founded to make better mouthpieces for brass players.
To help musicians choose a mouthpiece, I first needed accurate measurements of the ones already on the market. I built a portable 3D scanner and used it to scan hundreds of mouthpieces while on tour with the National Band of the Naval Reserve.
Working from those scans, I found that the shape of any mouthpiece could be described with seven variables. That became the basis of the mouthpiece builder on the Helix website, where players can compare existing models and adjust them to design something new. I also wrote a Fusion 360 plugin that automatically creates the lathe toolpaths from those user-defined dimensions, so a new design can go straight to machining.
Helix Brass makes mouthpieces out of POM (acetal), chosen for its material properties. It is denser and more rigid than ABS and polycarbonate, the material most other plastic mouthpieces are made from. It also has low acoustic damping compared to other plastics, so a POM mouthpiece feels and sounds much closer to brass. Each mouthpiece is given a rim finish that feels like gold-plated brass, rather than the slippery or sticky surface of moulded plastic.
Helix Brass was selected for the Innovation Factory business accelerator, won first place at the 2017 Elev8 pitch competition, and reached #1 New Release in the trumpet mouthpieces category after launching on Amazon.com.
