The Mute Company

The Mute Company was founded by David Riggs in the spring of 2022 in the first year of his master’s program at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. With help from the CCM trumpet studio as prototype testers, development and advancement in designs progressed quickly with a lot of feedback.

David has been 3D printing since he was in high school, with a background in engineering, mathematics, and music performance, he is well qualified as the designer and printer of products.

Why are mutes so expensive

In the fall of 2021, David began designing and printing buzzing accessories for trumpets. After printing for a few months, friends were curious if he could print mutes because they were looking for better practice mutes, different tone colors, and cheaper mutes in general to better expand their mute collection.

In March 2022, the first prototype mutes for trumpet began testing. First reviewers were excited to try new technology in manufacturing mutes. That brings us to how we make mutes the way we do. We print them out!

How do you print a mute

The same way you layer on frosting on a cake, our 3D printers layer recycled plastic to create a functional mute. This process not only allows us to print more colorful mute options meaning red, blue, green, yellow, glow in the dark… but also colorful in terms of sound. The reason for mutes being used anyway is to change the sound, color, timbre, of an instrument for compositional purposes. With our manufacturing technology, we can simply design products that cannot be manufactured any other way. We have some exciting mutes in store…

Our Printing Materials

Our plastic mutes are printed in a plastic known as PETG, the formal name is Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol, we like to just call it PETG. The specific plastic we use has been 100% recycled in Columbus, Ohio making our mutes not only cost-effective but also a great environmentally-friendly option for musicians. PETG is food-safe, chemical resistant, strong, and slightly flexible making it perfect for mutes.

We will soon be offering a wood filament option as well on some mute models to give a warmer, more mellow tone color. The wood filament we use is made up of 40% real wood fibers, and 60% plastic polymers. The result is a product that looks and feels almost identical to wood, including the smell, but has the strength and resilience properties of plastic.