can you post a picture of the end of the shank in good lighting?

 

Looks like a modern production meyer I think. Maybe it was exposed to some sort of stressful conditions, like heat or chemicals? Either that or a factory flaw in the mix or vulcanization or something?

I suppose it could be a copy, but why would someone go through the trouble to copy a modern meyer?

 

do it

 

That does not look like a copy. Have you tried cleaning or polishing the outer surface to see what happens?

 

no

 

Meyers are made of hard rubber in a process created by them, now owned by JJ Babbitt. The rubber blanks are made in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, and then processed in Elkhart, Indiana. Hard rubber can decompose if exposed to heat or left out in the sun. If a cleaning agent is used on them, they get damaged. You can try rubbing it with olive oil to bring the shine back.

 

not used outdoors or in the Sun. in chamber too decomposed in the Sun?

 

That definitely does not look right to me.

I don't think that JJ Babbitt would release a mouthpiece that looked like that (new Meyers are typically polished to a glossy surface) if it was a manufacturing flaw, and an older mouthpiece subjected to harsh environmental conditions would likely have taken on the brownish/greenish tinge typical of aged hard rubber. This seems to be made of some different resin (i.e., not HR) and to have been poorly molded.

I'm not sure why someone would copy a modern Meyer, but this doesn't look original to me.

 

Go to the source. Steve Rorie at Babbitt might help you.
steve@jjbabbitt.com

 

Go to the source. Steve Rorie at Babbitt might help you.
steve@jjbabbitt.com

Answer mr.Steve

 

How does it play?

 

fantastic sound

 

My gut feeling is that it is a genuine hard rubber meyer that is somehow damaged from exposure to heat or chemicals,... intentionally sand blasted maybe? Unintentionally sand blasted by rolling around in box, drawer or bag with lots of debris inside???

 

maybe testing "new materials" of manufacture mouthpieces around 1970 - 1990 years?

 

There was a period of time when Babbitt was using an odd HR material. It may have been a HR/plastic blend. Difficult to say exactly when since some that were made sat at retailers until they were sold. But if forced to narrow it down, I would say it was a 3-6 month period sometime within 2000-2005. It refaces weird. Kinda powdery.

 

I have an old Florida Straight Sig Tone Edge that has some if that look to it. I had doubts about its authenticity and sent it to Jimmy Jensen to see if he would take a look. He confirmed it’s legit.
I think it may have something to do with age and sitting around unplayed, if that makes any sense.

 

Yes, Im with Mojo though it looks suspect. They really made some werid ones with that era of hard rubber. It came off black on sandpaper...like refacing a tire. Also a bit heavier than most hr meyers. Played fine though

 

I have a meyer that looks just like that. I'm sure it's original. I've compared mine with the others I have here. Nothing different or odd except for the texture.

 

Hey Bkenes, I think it would be interesting and informative if you could post a picture of that to this thread

 

My undrestanding was it was not a test but a necessity. At some point the EPA focused on the hard rubber plant that was in Elkhart. Hard rubber production is a very dirty business. It was required that quite a lot would need to be spent on polution control. The company opted to simpy shut down given the limited demand. Babbitt was left needing hard rubber and this is what they found. It has since changed back to a more traditonal recipe but those piece are still out there. Ive not seen one that looked quite this bad. In my limited experience with those unusual piece they lookd ALMOST normal. Still a bit different and as I said earlier, quite heavy in comparison to the normal hard rubber Meyers.

 

The Texture on that piece had to have occurred afterwards not during the manufacturing. When these come out of the molds there’s a lot of cleanup,... trimming,sanding polishing etc. before the stamps go on I would assume?

 

yes, it is. and hand finishing

 

maybe it is Meyer manufakture ending years 1970-1971 period of company Meyer seiling and baying JJ.Babbitt?

 

Wonder if something like this could happen if the piece was put under high heat. Like an auto clave or an oven.

 

or hard practice

 

How about a high neutron flux?

 

My Florida Straight Sig. If you look where the barrel meets the shank you see some of that texture.

 

Your's looks like air bubbles/pitting. The OP's has some serious raised bumps, which makes me think this happened some time after manufacturing, possibly within a few short weeks/months due to a bad rubber formula or some sort of environmental stress.

 

Here's mine.

 

This kind of inhomogeneity was the reason why Ron went from Babbit blanks to Ultem. Some HR blanks looked like pickles and some had blisters in the material. I've seen quite a few in Ron's bone-pile.

 

what's period manufacture of blanks Ultems?

 

i have an unusual meyer with no markings at all. its only an average player tho

 

I have one of those also. No markings except the usual table diamond with tip/chamber size

 

According to the Babbitt site, the vulcanizing process requires a particular heat and humidity setting. These really look like production issues that affect appearance. My Cannonball (Meyer Clone produced by Babbitt) is smooth, no bubbles, no pits. It was made in 2018.

 

There is a very nice article on the process on MorganMouthpieces:

Evolution of a Morgan Mouthpiece - Wow!

Evolution of a Morgan Saxophone Mouthpiece Here are photos of a Morgan Jazz Tenor Mouthpiece as it goes through the different stages of production. This is the same process as used on our Classical and Jazz Clarinet, Classical Alto and Tenor, Jazz Alto and Tenor, and Excalibur Alto and Tenor...

www.morganmouthpieces.com

 

I see that Morgan uses the sheet method. Babbitt produces rods hard rubber in Ft. Wayne, and those get turned into mouth pieces then vulcanized in Elkhart. You can still smell it during the week if you drive by their plant.

 

‘I got to tour the Babbitt factory last year. I really didn’t care about going on a tour, but they gave me one anyway.
‘I saw the molds and held one of the unfinished flexible mouthpieces. The vulcanizing takes place in a big pressure cooker that pushes sulphur in the rubber as it was explained to me.
‘They hand finish everything as far as what I saw.
I hand picked a new EB 6* Tone Edge out of a bunch I tried. They all played similar but the one I picked seemed a little brighter than the others.