Hi there,
I heard and read several times about mouthpiece to be the last bit of the cone profile and the volume of mouthpiece is so critical that way.
Someone pointed at this criticality being so much that increasing or lowering baffle or refacing to the point of reducing the length hence volume of the mouthpiece could result in making the mouthpiece out of tune. I like to know how critical is that and since we all the time adjust the tuning by our embouchure anyway, how come this issue is still so critical that some people try to avoid the idea of refacing the mouthpiece.
I know this article in the web: https://ccrma.stanford.edu/marl/Benade/documents/Benade-Physics323-1977.pdf and another one that I can't find right now. I just like to learn how to evaluate that if the mouthpiece volume is not right for the sax body I'm using. If it is the tuning exercise for upper let's say C, B, A vs. lower D, C, B, Bb if I make one side (let's say lower) in tune and the other side (upper) is too sharp does it mean the mouthpiece volume is too low or too high? I should mention that prior to this test, I practice tuning my embouchure to keep the mouthpiece itself in tune prior to putting it on the sax body, then adjust the mouthpiece on the cork to get a tuned middle of the pipe to start with.
The idea of avoiding refacing because it messes up the volume of the mouthpiece may not be very practical since there are so many mouthpieces that one to the other they vary in the manufacturing tolerances. I got three Selmer C* and each one has different dimensions than the other one, and the same with recent Meyer alto mouthpieces. The parameters are too varied to count on original manufacturing to be cast on stone.
Lastly, I like to know if there are frequently coupled mouthpiece and sax bodies that work well together. I know there are varieties and it's hard to make principle out of this, but if I hear from a few that they made this particular mouthpiece match with this body but this other one didn't work for that sax body at all, then I can start collecting those instances and create a list for frequently / favorite coupled mpc/bodies or a list of potential mismatches. I know reed also adds other variable to this but I thought I take it out of the picture for now.
This issue is apparently brought up before in SOTW but I thought I also add to the enquiry for you guys spelling out what worked for you and what didn't (for all tenor, alto and soprano).
Thanks a lot.
I heard and read several times about mouthpiece to be the last bit of the cone profile and the volume of mouthpiece is so critical that way.
Someone pointed at this criticality being so much that increasing or lowering baffle or refacing to the point of reducing the length hence volume of the mouthpiece could result in making the mouthpiece out of tune. I like to know how critical is that and since we all the time adjust the tuning by our embouchure anyway, how come this issue is still so critical that some people try to avoid the idea of refacing the mouthpiece.
I know this article in the web: https://ccrma.stanford.edu/marl/Benade/documents/Benade-Physics323-1977.pdf and another one that I can't find right now. I just like to learn how to evaluate that if the mouthpiece volume is not right for the sax body I'm using. If it is the tuning exercise for upper let's say C, B, A vs. lower D, C, B, Bb if I make one side (let's say lower) in tune and the other side (upper) is too sharp does it mean the mouthpiece volume is too low or too high? I should mention that prior to this test, I practice tuning my embouchure to keep the mouthpiece itself in tune prior to putting it on the sax body, then adjust the mouthpiece on the cork to get a tuned middle of the pipe to start with.
The idea of avoiding refacing because it messes up the volume of the mouthpiece may not be very practical since there are so many mouthpieces that one to the other they vary in the manufacturing tolerances. I got three Selmer C* and each one has different dimensions than the other one, and the same with recent Meyer alto mouthpieces. The parameters are too varied to count on original manufacturing to be cast on stone.
Lastly, I like to know if there are frequently coupled mouthpiece and sax bodies that work well together. I know there are varieties and it's hard to make principle out of this, but if I hear from a few that they made this particular mouthpiece match with this body but this other one didn't work for that sax body at all, then I can start collecting those instances and create a list for frequently / favorite coupled mpc/bodies or a list of potential mismatches. I know reed also adds other variable to this but I thought I take it out of the picture for now.
This issue is apparently brought up before in SOTW but I thought I also add to the enquiry for you guys spelling out what worked for you and what didn't (for all tenor, alto and soprano).
Thanks a lot.