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Re: how to flatten a mouthpiece table?

Author: Mojo
Date: 2020-03-09 17:09

I came from a sax background but I am primarily a bass clarinet player these days. I have refaced a bunch of BC and Contra mouthpieces for my own trial/use and I sell a few.

As with sax mouthpieces, I’m in the camp that a flat table with a flat Reed is the best strategy. The main objective is to create an air tight seal at the bottom of the window. If you use a cane Reed, check it regularly for swelling and flatten it with a scraper. I mostly use flat synthetic reeds.

A longitudinally concave table often works just as well. It slightly bows the reed as you tighten you ligature. But it still can also have a sealing problem if your reed swells. A concavity across the table can compensate for this but it also gives a place for your reeds to swell into and they can go past the dip and you have the same sealing issues.

A convex table is never a good thing. A few of them can seal if you position your ligature towards the tip and you tighten the tip screw more than the heel screw.

Flattening a table can be maddening when you are learning how to do it. The way the mouthpiece naturally rocks on the sandpaper makes the table convex until you learn how to grip the mouthpiece to counteract the forces at play while you sand it. I have a few videos on YouTube showing how to do this. But it still takes practice.

MojoMP.com
Mojo Mouthpiece Work LLC
MojoMouthpieceWork@yahoo.com

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