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Not the usual Mouthpiece Question

Author: Pappy
Date: 2008-11-29 20:32

So here is a bit of a non-traditional mouthpiece question. I have a slew of mouthpieces, barrels and reeds that I get countless hours of fun putzing around with. So I'm really not looking for a "what's the best mouthpiece?" kind of thing.

So, I have several Vandoren mp's - M13L, M15, B45, etc. Grabner, a Kaspar Ann Arbor that was my fathers and Portnoys. I have some of each of the Portnoy facings. I always come back to them as they always work well for me. Anyway, my question is a bout measuring facings and the like. Tip opening is clear. The M15 for example has a 1.035 mm opening and the most closed Portnoy has an opening of 1.09 mm. What I want to make sure I understand properly is the facing length.

Can I assume that to measure the length of the facing, or curve, that I -

1) Put a reed on the mouthpiece
2) slip a piece of paper between the mp and the reed and slide it down until it fills the entire gap
(where you see "daylight")
3) Mark the paper and measure

So doing that, the M15, which is said to have a long facing is 31 mm. The Portnoy BP1 has a facing length of about 25 mm. So,

1) Is my method of measuring this right?
2) If a 31mm facing is long, then is a 25 med-long?

Also, I've seen a lot of threads about Chedeville and Kaspars and whether a given mp is based on one of those two. The Vandoren M13s are apparently Chedeville based. Does anybody know if Portnoy based his mp's on some previous standard like that?

Thanks

Post Edited (2008-11-29 20:35)

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