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Re: Higher end plastic/acrylic mouthpieces?

Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2019-11-25 05:14

The hardness scale in the first link does not seem to be related to vulcanized rubber. But I am not really sure how they are measuring that (compressive strength? tensile strength?).

What I can comment on is the day to day use of a mouthpiece.

First example:

After about a year on one particular ESM, I noted the same sort of "dulling" that you see on a vulcanized rubber mouthpiece at the points along the tip and side rails where the reed vibrates.

Second example:

While clumsily placing a Bay ligature on an ESM "Blue Heaven," I missed and hit the very tip of the mouthpiece first. This was not a "jamming" sort of maneuver, but just the effort you'd normally use to "place" the ligature. What I got was a good thin but obvious dent from the very tip to through a portion of the playing surface of the tip rail. I was particularly upset with myself because I'd only had that mouthpiece a few days at that point. Now the Bay (for all familiar) does have an edge like a set of Ginsu knives, but it still shows that acrylic mouthpiece is NOT bullet proof (or maybe it is Tesla Truck bullet proof.......ha).

..............Paul Aviles

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