What will the PRANA hold?
When I was in New York back in May, I finally bit the bullet and ordered the new “PRANA” version of my Trumpet mouthpiece. I’ve been playing Monette pieces (specifically the B1-5L) since the summer of 1997. Despite the high initial outlay, I’ve never looked back. They simply are that good!!
When Dave Monette announced the new PRANA range a couple of years ago I looked on with interest, unsure as to whether the even higher outlay was worth the fuss. My question was answered when I spent some time hanging with Brian Lynch - he let me have a try on a couple of different Monette PRANAs that he uses and they were simply fantastic. It look some time before I felt that I could afford it - the price tag is $315 (US) - but I finally got to it. The only trouble has been that, as the B1-5L is a somewhat rarely used model, there is quite a production waiting list. I ordered it from Dillons and they estimated that it would take 3-4 weeks.
I finally got the email saying that it had been shipped to me on Wednesday this week, approximately 11 weeks later, and so I’ll being picking it up from my local UPS depot tomorrow morning. I can’t wait to see how it plays and, in fact, won’t have to since I’m playing Lead on 2 shows tomorrow evening!
I’ll be back in the next week or so to pass on my impressions of the new mouthpiece. Here’s hoping it lives up to expectations…
