Need to do a crude top opening job

[Samthejazzman]

I have been asked to play baritone sax for our schools graduation. One problem though, they gave me a generic mouthpeice. Im used to play on my runyon custom with a 6 opening. Talk about restrictive, i nearly pooped myself first time i played.

We have a woodshop in our lab and i was wondering if i could go and open the top myself.

Im thinking of just using the grinder to remove some of the tip and then rails to open the time a little and let some more air in.

Is there anyway that i can control the situation and not screw up the intonation of the mouthpeice but still make the opening greater or is this a precsion job that requires precision instruments.

[MS]

Woah!!!!!! I believe the grinder route (electric mottor) will heat the rubber and cause warping, plus you won't have any control of tolerances if you do it free-hand..
( I believe we're talking hard rubber-right?)
Most mps tech's will use a flat piece of safety glass at least 8 1/2 by 11 inches for a flat surface. On top of that you lay a piece of silicon carbide sandpaper with grit no less than 600 and could go as fine as 1200 grit.

To measure the facing curve you'll need a glass plate guage and at least one set of feeler gauges.

Maybe MojoBari or J. Gerber will stop by and give you a few hints is you're going to try it yourself. Mojo's involved with a web discussion group where you might get information to help.

You'll probably ruin several mps at the beginiing before you get the hang of it. A small amount of material taken off the wrong place can render the mps almost unplayable.

It may be fun to experiment, but take a little time and find out how most experienced refacers work on projects.

[MojoBari]

Ya dont need no high-falooten woodshop. Shucks, just get out yer chainsaw an have at it!

First, do not experiment with the only mouthpiece you have. If it is too close for you, just find a very hard reed. Trim one up if you have to.

As MS says, very fine sandpaper on a flat surface is the main tool in refacing. Without the proper gages and strategy, you risk making one rail different than the other and you will make a curve that is too flat in some spots and too curved in other spots. It will be prone to squeeking and will be difficult to play softly. But if you are in "close tip hell", opening it a little will probably be more gratifying to you, even if it is a little sloppy.

[markieg]

Well I did my Hite alto piece against everyone's advice and it did work. What I found is that you need to first use somewhat rough sandpaper to take away some of the baffle. After that use very fine sandpaper (the finest you can get) to smooth this out. Next use the fine sandpaper on the siderails and tip. Remember always that you can always take more off but can't put more on, so little steps only. Finally, I found that mine did not play very clean. The solution to this was to use an exacto knife to really define the tip rail. Good luck.