Resonance in a mouthpiece

A good horn on one end and a good player on the other!

Seriously, though, I'm not sure what you mean by resonance. Do you mean "bigness of sound?" If you do, then I would say a large chamber tends to (not always) yield a bigger, more spread sound, while a smaller chamber will create a more focused, compact tone.

Tough question to answer as the term "resonance" needs to be narrowed a bit. My refacing strategies are based primarily on reed resonance - controlled by the facing, baffle, and rail design. This is for managing resistance and harmonic content ("complexity"). Acoustic resonance (general tendency of the core fundamental) would be determined by the baffle and chamber.

I find that if you're talking about the mouthpiece actually vibrating ... then i find the mouthpieces with low baffles and larger chamber...

if you have a mouthpiece patch it's dampening this....
if you have a restrictive ligature it's dampening this too...

It kind of depends on what you mean by resonance.

From a physics standpoint, the "bigness of sound" as dirty put it or any other acoustic resonance would be controlled a combination of baffle and chamber. The reason, in simple terms, is that baffle and chamber affect are flow and therefore the pressure at which air is being pushed into the instrument.

I meant acoustic resonance. Some mouthpieces have this king of sound. It's hard to explain, a little echo, like a point of reverb. I find that very interesting. High baffle, low baffle? small chamber large chamber?

Some of that depends on the horn as well, but the larger chamber pieces with a modest baffle are the the ones that help attain that.

monkmydear said:

which part of a mouthpiece makes it more resonant. baffle? Chamber? Facing? Tip opening? Material? Or is it the combination of reed/mpc/ligature?

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All of the above.

A reverberation would be hard to attain in a mouthpiece alone. I would think that what you are referring to has more to do with the horn as that has more variables. It is possible that the shape of the chamber could produce a reverb.

monkmydear said:

which part of a mouthpiece makes it more resonant. baffle? Chamber? Facing? Tip opening? Material? Or is it the combination of reed/mpc/ligature?

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Please have a look to this web page http://www.hobbysax.com/Setup.html
and listen to the second sound file concerning the wood tenor mouthpiece. Let me know if this sound agree with your idea of resonance, just to better understand. Sorry for the quality but I used a small recorder placed on a table in the center of a small room (and I am not a good saxophone player too ).
If you find the sound resonant I will give you the specifications of that mouthpiece.

All the best,

Stan

Yes, this is what I undestand by resonant. Just this kind of "tubby" sound you can hear in Dexter recordings sometimes.

monkmydear said:

Yes, this is what I undestand by resonant. Just this kind of "tubby" sound you can hear in Dexter recordings sometimes.

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:shock:

Should I pay for this?
the mouthpiece is an 8* with a small rollover baffle, a standard medium facing and a smooth-step medium-large chamber.
I am thinking to increase the internal chamber volume in order to have a warmer deep tone.

Stan

P.S. I love Dexter...

Not at all. It's totally free. The mouthpiece is really cool to see (and to hear). Self made?

monkmydear said:

Not at all. It's totally free. The mouthpiece is really cool to see (and to hear). Self made?

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Yes! Completely self made. The first one was entirely made by hands, now we use some rotating tool but never CNC machines. We are currently working on something of really new and wonderfull looking (and playing ) mouthpiece. In about one month I should be able to post pictures and sound clips. At this time I only have two amazing prototypes (the shadow in the avatar), I love both.
Contact me in pvt if you want to receive news on this specific exciting project.
Thanks for everything,

Stan

monkmydear said:

which part of a mouthpiece makes it more resonant. baffle? Chamber? Facing? Tip opening? Material? Or is it the combination of reed/mpc/ligature?

Click to expand...

i seems like if you are talking about acoustic resonance on all notes and not just for ones that match or "resonate" with the internal dimensions of the mouthpiece then it would be material and the thickness of that material would controll its ability to get vibrating. one of the thing that gets guardalla mouthpieces going is the thinness of the metal. just like for instance old mc gregory alto rubber mouthpieces they also are very thin.
some models of old otto ink metal mouthpiese can be kind of thin and light as well.

some people say material doesn't matter but i can actually feel my old mk VI tenor vibrating in my hands when i play it. my other horns simpy don't do that and they sound very dead in comparison.