Plastic or hard rubber? How to tell...

1588 Views 6 Replies 4 Participants Last post by xax, Jul 10, 2007

xax

Discussion Starter · Jul 9, 2007

Is there a simple, non-destructive way to determine whether a mouthpiece is plastic or hard rubber? Usually it's obvious to me but occasionally I come across a piece that is difficult to tell. There my be a thread on this elsewhere but I haven't found it.

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Hurling Frootmig

· #2 · Jul 9, 2007

Hard rubber will generally smell like hard rubber and plastic will not. Plastic mouthpieces tend to have a very shiny finish while most hard rubber pieces do not have the same level of shine.

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bruce bailey

· #3 · Jul 9, 2007

What brand is it?

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Ol' Mpc Doc

· #4 · Jul 9, 2007

xax said:
Is there a simple, non-destructive way to determine whether a mouthpiece is plastic or hard rubber? Usually it's obvious to me but occasionally I come across a piece that is difficult to tell. There my be a thread on this elsewhere but I haven't found it.

Hold the entry end of the mpc shank like it was a big pencil eraser flat on a piece of 600-grit abrasive paper and drag it a short distance. The color of the "dust" left will tell you if it's ebonite or plastic. Most plastics will leave a white or whitish dust whle good ebonite will be near the color of cocoa. This test is totally non-destructive to the mpc either functionally or aesthetically.

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xax

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jul 9, 2007

Ol' Mpc Doc said:
Hold the entry end of the mpc shank like it was a big pencil eraser flat on a piece of 600-grit abrasive paper and drag it a short distance. The color of the "dust" left will tell you if it's ebonite or plastic. Most plastics will leave a white or whitish dust whle good ebonite will be near the color of cocoa. This test is totally non-destructive to the mpc either functionally or aesthetically.

Thanks Doc. That's what I was looking for...Just don't want to "misrepresent" what I sell.

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bruce bailey

· #6 · Jul 10, 2007

And it was made by......

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xax

Discussion Starter · #7 · Jul 10, 2007

bruce bailey said:
What brand is it?

Bruce, I have no idea! From time to time i turn up nice playing older pieces without markings. I'm pretty happy with what i've been playing on, so i move these other pieces out. I try to describe them fairly and accurately and usually it's easy to tell what the material is. However, there are times when...

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