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Re: "Madsen" refacing?

Author: Ed
Date: 2017-01-18 18:31

I went to Matson many times over the years. I had him do work on various pieces for me and for students. I also went down to visit while he worked on mouthpieces for colleagues. The 6-12-22-34 numbers were what he told me he used. I even wrote them down at the time and believe I still have the paper. While he preferred the 102 tip, there was some variance as has been mentioned. It was all about what worked.

As was said, he would not hold to these religiously. There were many reasons for this. Sometimes the blank seemed to warrant something slightly different or the player might have a different preference. I recall one mouthpiece that I played on for years where the left rail was as he called it "34+". It was not intentional, but came out that way as he was working on it and we both liked it so much we decided to leave it as it was.

While he was not a player by profession, he had a great sense and feel. I always feel that I learned a lot from him about how to play as well as about mouthpieces. He had a great feel for the equipment and could really detect very subtle nuances. Whenever we were working on a mouthpiece I would always ask him to play it as well along the process. Because of his vast experience with countless mouthpieces, he would often be able to detect and articulate slight issues that I was only vaguely aware of.

I once asked him why he settled on those numbers. He said that he was working on Harold Wright's mouthpiece and Bob Genovese was also there. When he used that facing they all agreed that it was "the one".

Some people who would have more first hand information would be Chris Hill, who studied mouthpiece making with him and Tom Hill who was a student. I know both were good friends of Matson's and spent quite a bit of time with him.

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"Madsen" refacing? new

csmith

2008-08-05 15:08