[turf3]

Well, the rough equivalent of the standard issue Meyer for alto, on tenor is a hard rubber Link.

You could try about a #6 new Vintage Slant Link, about $200. I have one and I like it very much, though personally I'm a Meyer man on tenor.

 

[turf3]

Yeah, but the scuttlebutt is that the standard TE doesn't have enough baffle and sounds woolly and blah. I've never tried one myself so take that for what it's worth.

At a minimum the plastic Yamaha 5C would get you off the ground and running.

 

[turf3]

Can I do a search on YTS-21 key heights or something like that, or should any tech have them?

I would NOT assume the horn needs a complete going-over. I'd take it to a shop and say "what does this need to get it playing?" Now since this is one of the most common student instruments on earth, any decent repair shop has seen thousands of these and their close relatives (the YTS series). Despite the tendency to default to "total overhaul" here on the internet, I bet what it needs is several pads corks and felts and some attention to regulation, to be playing well top to bottom.

Get through that and then see if you want to do the full-metal-jacket overhaul thing. These Yamaha student horns are the equivalent of the Powerglide transmission:

Our old joke back in the day when I was in Corvair circles about the Corvair Powerglide 2 speed automatic was that you find the old car in the field, drag it home behind your F-250, do a complete engine rebuild, all new brake system, all new rubber gaskets around the windows and doors, 4 new radial tires, fix a couple rust spots and repaint, new interior and carpet - and then you pull out the tranny dip stick and there's a couple drops of weird-colored tar-like stuff on the end. Whaddya do for the transmission?

Put about 5 quarts transmission fluid in that sucker and DRIVE it. It'll be fine!

 

[turf3]

Take a close look; that Bundy and that Brilhart are the same mouthpiece, made from the same mold, same plastic, just a different name stamped on. Neither one's worth much, both will play very well. Despite the "cheap" reputation, either of them could serve you for decades of professional service should they suit you.

 

[turf3]

The two MPs were probably made at different times. Facing machine adjusted a bit differently. Or a multi cavity mold with slight variation in the cavities.

Almost certainly the material is PMMA, polymethylmethacrylate, which is often shortened to "acrylic" and which is more or less the same family of material as Plexiglass. It's rather brittle, which leads to requiring more draft angle on the bore of the MP, and these being cheap mouthpieces they weren't reamed to a final cylindrical bore but left as-molded; all of which tend to lead to the cracks so often seen in PMMA mouthpieces. When the material's white, the cracks are more visible. Your best plan is to make sure the cork's not too tight. If you really end up liking a PMMA el cheapo, you can ream it and make the bore cylindrical, but it's kind of a pain and you really need some telescoping bore gauges.

 

[turf3]

I've never seen an all-black Ebolin, they usually have a white bite plate insert. Is this one definitely labeled "Ebolin"? (There are a LOT of variants amongst Brilharts.)