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Mouthpiece symmetry???

1757 Views 7 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  Christian W
An apology if this is repeating any previous posts, though I couldn't find this info when I searched.

A few questions about mouthpiece symmetry:

I am curious to know at what point it becomes pointless to pursue absolutely perfect symmetry when refacing. HR pieces seem to be harder to get perfectly symmetrical, maybe because of the softness of HR compared to metal, and the unforgiving ease with which HR changes. But anyway, I am just wondering what differences marginal non-symmetricalness actually makes. I can understand that the tip and tip rails need to be as close to perfect as humanly possible, given that this is the part of the mouthpiece that interacts with the reed, but what difference does, for instance, a slightly non-symmetrical window bottom curve have on how the mouthpiece performs?

Cheers guys –
Christian Watson
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Almost nothing. You can test this yourself if you have the skills to make a mouthpiece ultra symmetric. Any one area you then make non-symmentric will not be noticeable on a play test. After you make a bunch of changes, they may add up to being significant. But this will most likely be due to the fact that you made the chamber volume a little larger with all your changes.

Now the facing curve on the side rails is another story. The window can be off-center so the the side rail thickness is not the same. This mostly a cosmetic thing. But the piece will play its best if the facing curve is a good shape and symmetric on both side rails.

Natural selection dictates that we prefer symmetry. It is a perceived sign of quality even if it does not effect the function.
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