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Re: The balance of mouthpieces

Author: Brad Behn
Date: 2018-02-24 01:36

Much of what I do as a refacer is to correct the problems which were built into a mouthpiece do to poor workmanship at the factory, or (more commonly) to a badly refaced mouthpiece. Issues from unbalanced facings, rails with uneven widths, tip rails of poor construction, facings with overly flat curves, and baffles which have been scratched up with files in an ugly fashion are common. Any one of those issues can cause a mouthpiece to perform poorly but rarely is it just one, but rather an assemblage of many poor-quality issues which make an otherwise good mouthpiece design play with detuned resonance and poor response.

Yes I too find a close faced Kaspar mouthpiece places it outside its sweet spot. But in looking at a baffle and to see the obvious differences in contour and depth aren't the only factors influencing a mouthpiece's optimum tip opening. For example where Kaspar mouthpieces were concerned, many were made with bores of a more conical nature. This more extreme conicity is a problem in that it widens the ratio of the twelfths, and it encourages a more open facing than a bore with less conicity would prefer.

Another element effecting how open a mouthpieces feels - I have found that the displacement ratio of Chamber versus the total volume of the mouthpiece is very important in how quickly a mouthpiece responds, and how flexible sounding the mouthpiece performs. This important bore-baffle displacement ratio then influences how I make a facing's tip opening and length.

Furthermore the angle of the table's plane in relationship to the entrance angle of the baffle is of crucial importance. It may be of interest to some that in fact - due to a Zinner's upper baffle rollover, and extreme slackness of the table plane (6 degrees) that the entrance angle of the baffle isn't as deep as many would suggest. And no a Zinner's baffle - although appearing deep, isn't as deep as conventional wisdom would to dictate.

Brad Behn
http://www.clarinetmouthpiece.com

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The balance of mouthpieces new

xiao yu

2018-02-13 11:15