me metal cup mutes have an adjustable cup portion which can be moved towards or away from the brass instrument bell to further color the tone. Newer cup mutes like the Soulo cup mute now offer an adjustable cup portion although made from a fiber composite material, allowing the user to adjust the cup while preserving the traditional cup mute sound.
The solo-tone mute (labeled by the Humes and Berg Corporation as the "Clear-Tone" mute) is shaped like a long straight mute, and includes sound baffles inside the mute that accentuate treble frequencies. It is rarely written for today but was common in jazz ensemble music written between 1930 and 1950. The most trademark use of the solo-tone mute was in Tommy Dorsey's trombone solo in "Song of India", recorded January 1, 1937.
The buzz-wah mute is shaped like a cup but is designed with vibrating membranes on the mute, as if several kazoos were attached to the instrument. This mute creates a very unusual and recognizable sound, but is quite difficult to play, and is extremely rare in performance. In the early 1920s, Joe "King" Oliver was known to hold a kazoo in the bell of his cornet to achieve the buzz effect. Commercial versions of this type of mute soon followed. The earliest version of this was the "Humes Jazzer" patented by Guy B. Humes in the mid-1920s.
The Wah-wah mute (also known by the brand name Harmon) is a hollow, bulbous mute in two parts. Unlike the more common straight or cup mutes, the Harmon mute has a solid ring of cork that completely blocks all of the air leaving the bell, and forces all of the instrument's air column into the mute. In a hole on the front of the mute, there is a cup on a tube that can be slid in or out, or removed completely, depending on the composer's direction or the player's preference. When this mute is used, the instrument produces a tinny, shallow sound which become more so . Harmon mutes are available for many brass instruments, but are only commonly used by trumpets and trombones.
Bucket mutes attach to the rim of the bell with springs and contain cotton, foam or a similar substance. The effect is removal of high frequencies and a soft, muffled tone. Some modern bucket mutes (by JoRal for example) are designed as over sized straight mutes filled with batting, with large holes in along the side. These are held in the bell of the instrument with strips of cork, like straight and cup mutes. Players often find a trade-off between spring-style mutes, which can prevent quick transitions and cone-shaped mutes that squeeze into the bell, which can cause back-pressure. Modernized flexible spring-style clips on bucket mutes (by Soulo Mute for example) make transitioning fast and also eliminate back-pressure.
Derby mutes or hat mutes (also known as Bowler Hats, and also confusingly and incorrectly called Wah-wah mutes) were common in jazz from the 1920s when King Oliver played and others wrote for them. These mutes were originally actual bowler hats. In the 1920s, with the advent of aluminum as an art metal, derby mutes were stamped out of metal by companies such as Meta-Lite, Elton, and later Harmon. These replaced the use of the actual bowler derbies. From the 1950s to the present derby mutes were made of fibre (a resin impregnated cardboard). They are still available from the Humes & Berg Company.
Derby mutes are typically mounted on stands in front of the trumpet and trombone players, to permit quick movement of the bell in and out of the hat quickly, although they can be opened and closed over the bell of the instrument by hand. These mutes have fallen somewhat out of favor in recent years, as bucket mutes or playing into the music stand can give a somewhat similar, although unvarying sound.
Stop or Stopping mutes are unique to the French horn. The term hand-stopping involves the hornist inserting his/her hand into the bell of the instrument, completely cutting off the airflow. A buzzing sound results, and the tone is raised a semitone from the shortening of the effective length of the instrument. At lower intervals, application of this 