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Morgan tip openings/facing lengths

Author: Dan Shusta
Date: 2018-09-18 12:18

I tried to find out the facing length of the Morgan RM-06 and was unable to do so. shmuelyosef suggested that I call Erik Greiffenhagen, who is now the Product Manager at Morgan mouthpieces, and ask him directly.

I called Erik and received the tip openings and facing lengths of all 8 of their "scooped beak" mouthpieces. I asked for permission to publish the statistics and was told to get in contact with the owner, Dave of junkdude.com.

I emailed Dave and received written permission to publish them as well as a short paragraph describing the Morgan mouthpiece manufacturing process.

Model----Tip Opening---facing Length (Brand units)
RM-06----1.06mm--------33
RM-10----1.10mm--------34
RM-15----1.15mm--------34
RM-20----1.20mm--------34
RM-28----1.28mm--------36
J5-------1.25mm--------36
J6-------1.35mm--------36
J7-------1.45mm--------36

Some historical information: Per David Hoskins, the owner of Morgan mouthpieces, the RM-28 facing is believed to be the facing Ralph put on Benny Goodman's mouthpieces when Ralph worked for the Selmer company.

Here's the email from Dave:

Hello Dan,

If you want to publish the facing lengths, that is fine with me. The other question we get a lot is where do we purchase our blanks from. As you may already know, we mold and vulcanize our own castings made with our pure rubber formula. We do not sell our castings to any other makers. After the castings are cured, everything is done by the hands of our craftsmen using hand tools and sandpaper. No facing machines, no milling machines, no CNC machines. We still make mouthpieces the way they were made in the 1920s - 1960s. I don't know of any other maker that still makes mouthpieces this way.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks, Dave

John Price sent me the following informative link explaining the actual, foremost purpose of the "scooped beak" and I wanted to share it with all of you:
https://www.morganmouthpieces.com/blogs/news/158795399-so-heres-the-scoop-saxophone-and-clarinet-mouthpiece-design

This posting is made primarily for archive purposes and has been edited for additional content.

Post Edited (2018-09-18 22:00)

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Re: Morgan tip openings/facing lengths

Author: QuickStart Clarinet
Date: 2018-09-18 17:18

Thanks! This is very useful. I think the tip opening is probably one of the most important things to know about a mouthpiece.

Josh Goo
QuickStart Clarinet Founder
www.quickstartclarinet.com

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Re: Morgan tip openings/facing lengths

Author: shmuelyosef
Date: 2018-09-19 01:19

My 2 cents:
- Tip opening and facing length together are useful to guess the strength reed one might want to play

- Facing curve is very important in terms of what reed 'cut' is going to work best. The length of the vamp and the rate of thickness build near the tip are best when they "match" the facing curve

- Beyond this, the chamber shape makes a pretty big difference as well and can dramatically change the frequency spectrum of the resulting sound (more, probably, than the clarinet itself).

- Also, not to neglect the exit bore of the mouthpiece and how it relates to the barrel entry and average clarinet bore

Once you have chosen a particular design mouthpiece (e.g. here the Morgan RM- and J- series) the tip opening is indeed the only variable.

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