Soulo Mute

Soulo Mute has somewhat of a serendipitous story. It started about ten years ago when young trumpeter Mike Jarosz first tried one of the old Finch mutes and fell in love with its sound. It was introduced to him by a good friend and amazing trumpet player George Rabbai. In the years that followed, he could never find another mute that impressed him as much with its cool velvety sound and easiness to play. And he tried many, pretty much every mute out there.

A year ago, after rigorously practicing for an upcoming performance, Mike blew his neck out and was unable to play the trumpet for a long time. As any professional trumpet player, who makes a living solely by playing the trumpet, he got understandably worried about the future of his trumpet-playing career.

In the months, during which he could not play trumpet, Mike thought about the other thing he always wanted to do, but never found the time for - making that perfect mute. He used his memory of it and in the process of making it, added his own twist. He made the first prototype of Soulo Mute and called a good friend, also an exceptional trumpet player, Jay Webb, to test the mute. After some tweaking and experimenting with the materials, shapes and forms, the real Soulo Mute was born. Well, its name was a different story.

Mike called up some professional trumpet player friends to ask them to play it and tell him what they think its sound most reminded them of. Some cool names and some funny names jumped out of that experiment.

Soulo was chosen because everyone agreed that this mute has an abundance of soulfulness and it is perfect for soloing. Not to mention it also looks like Darth Vadar, Hans "Solo"'s nemesis from Star Wars.

Soulo Mute is currently being sold on 4 continents; North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Customers are sharing their experience in using it in multiple settings - as a bucket, cup, practice mute, and also for jazz and classical repertoire. The list keep growing with more trumpeters trying the mute. Share your own experience on the Soulo Mute Facebook page.