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Re: Time to rail against mouthpiece makers

Author: gavalanche20
Date: 2018-08-10 23:44

Brad, that reminds me of the response I received from a mouthpiece maker who I believe is well-known on this board when he politely declined to reveal the measurements of one of his mouthpiece models. In a nutshell his reasoning was that prospective players would read into the numbers too much and have preconceived notions about a mouthpiece by just looking into the measurements.

While I see the benefit of makers publishing their measurements, numbers are certainly not everything. I recently purchased a mouthpiece from Clark Fobes and initially had gone over his facing chart and looked over his numbers and asked for a particular facing, but after he had an idea of what I wanted sound and feel-wise, he recommended a different facing instead. His recommendation was bang-on, despite it having different numbers from what I was initially looking for.

Not long after I had a old Vandoren refaced by Scott Kurtzweil to a facing that on paper had a slightly more closed tip and longer lay than my Fobes. So in theory, looking at the facing numbers alone it should have been less resistant than the Fobes, but when it came back I found that I got the best results out of it by using a reed that was 1/2 strength softer than what I used on the Fobes. Obviously other things were different such as the rails or the chamber which led to the difference in feel.

PS., Paul, I can't help but notice the pun in the title, time to "rail" against mouthpiece makers? Good one!

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