Cups, cups, everywhere, but not a drop to drink

The cup mute.  It is similar to the bucket mute in that it looks like a container attached to the bell that dampens the sound before spitting it back out, and it is.  The key difference is that in the bucket mute, it was empty inside the bucket.  The cup mute looks more like a straight mute with a lip fringing around the edges.

Here, I have a comparison of  two straight mutes and a cup mute on the right.  The cup mute looks exactly like the straight mute, but it catches the sound and spits it back and out the side rather than just out the side like for a straight mute.  This process severely dampens both high and low harmonic frequencies.  This leaves nicer, rounder, more fuzzy tone.  The following clip shows the difference between a bucket, cup and straight mute (1:28 ,  2:15, and 2:59 respectively).

The cup mute is my personal favorite mute.  Compared to the softened straight or the echoy bucket, the cup mute has a very classic jazzy sound to it.  I have two and I just love playing with them in the bell.