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Re: Long vs. Medium-Long Facing length

Author: Roger Aldridge
Date: 2006-04-21 18:44

Interesting topic! I'm reminded of an analysis that Ralph Morgan did in comparing an old Meyer brothers mouthpiece with a new (Babbitt Company) Meyer and noting the significant differences between them. In this article he describes how there is an optimal relationship between the tip opening, facing length, and reed strength range. In addition, there is a fairly narrow facing length range that is correct for the instrument's reed: 19mm - 21mm for alto sax reeds and close to 24mm or 25 mm for tenor. What I gather from this is if, as an example, an alto sax mouthpiece has a 25mm facing length it's going to be problematic as 25mm is ideal length for a TENOR reed....not an alto reed.

I wish that Ralph Morgan had a similar article about clarinet mouthpieces!

Never the less, it seems to me that clarinet mouthpieces with either extremely short or extremely long facing lengths are going to be problematic in the same way that Ralph noted in his article about saxophone mouthpieces with facing lengths that are outside of the ideal measurement for their reed.

http://www.dornpub.com/SaxjPDF/meyer.pdf

Roger

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