Hello, my dear friends.
Brace yourselves for a really dumb question from an intermediate-level player.
During the 17 years that I have been playing, I have used different mouthpieces and different reeds, and found that each mouthpiece had its own unique "sweet spot" on the neck cork, at which position the horn played in perfect tune within itself, from top to bottom, and with the right embouchure, in tune externally also. If I am not mistaken, the reed slightly affects the intonation, also.
(First of all, is what I'm saying about all of this, correct, so far?)
Consequently, I end up marking the cork on the underside, in a different spot for each mouthpiece.
But after playing soprano for six months, then using the tenor for six months, then going back to the soprano, and then taking up the alto, I end up forgetting which mark was for which mouthpiece on which horn.
Add to that, the frustration of finding that no pen or marker seems to work well for marking the cork, except perhaps one time, after which the cork grease essentially ruins the pen or marker tip, and it can hardly be used again after that.
Not to mention that it is hard to mark the cork when it is already coated lightly with cork grease anyway.
About a year ago I got the idea of putting a dab of correction fluid or nail-polish, right in the jam between the mouthpiece and the cork, and letting it dry, so that the cork as well as the mouthpiece get marked at the same time with the same color, and at the same point. After marking a couple of mouthpieces in this way, I was back to the same issue of wondering which mark was for which mouthpiece.
Yesterday I tried some green nail polish, and thought I would just use different colors on the cork for different mouthpieces.
This is all a bit ridiculous, of course, but I wonder if you professionals have a better long-term solution to avoid all of these problems and mark the cork once and for all, in such a way that there is no confusion even when changing mouthpieces and changing horns.
Brace yourselves for a really dumb question from an intermediate-level player.
During the 17 years that I have been playing, I have used different mouthpieces and different reeds, and found that each mouthpiece had its own unique "sweet spot" on the neck cork, at which position the horn played in perfect tune within itself, from top to bottom, and with the right embouchure, in tune externally also. If I am not mistaken, the reed slightly affects the intonation, also.
(First of all, is what I'm saying about all of this, correct, so far?)
Consequently, I end up marking the cork on the underside, in a different spot for each mouthpiece.
But after playing soprano for six months, then using the tenor for six months, then going back to the soprano, and then taking up the alto, I end up forgetting which mark was for which mouthpiece on which horn.
Add to that, the frustration of finding that no pen or marker seems to work well for marking the cork, except perhaps one time, after which the cork grease essentially ruins the pen or marker tip, and it can hardly be used again after that.
Not to mention that it is hard to mark the cork when it is already coated lightly with cork grease anyway.
About a year ago I got the idea of putting a dab of correction fluid or nail-polish, right in the jam between the mouthpiece and the cork, and letting it dry, so that the cork as well as the mouthpiece get marked at the same time with the same color, and at the same point. After marking a couple of mouthpieces in this way, I was back to the same issue of wondering which mark was for which mouthpiece.
Yesterday I tried some green nail polish, and thought I would just use different colors on the cork for different mouthpieces.
This is all a bit ridiculous, of course, but I wonder if you professionals have a better long-term solution to avoid all of these problems and mark the cork once and for all, in such a way that there is no confusion even when changing mouthpieces and changing horns.