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Re: Reed motion

Author: Brad Behn
Date: 2021-03-31 22:56

Yes there is rail-tilt embedded in the facings of all Vandoren mouthpieces. Furthermore, dishing grows more severe as tip openings increase. This is all due to the manor in which the facings are applied.

Mouthpieces by Babbitt and D'Addario are cut differently and don't illustrate the dish-effect. They tend however to lack a true double-axis concavity on the table.

Some players - who prefer a mellower sound like the dish, whereas players seeking a crisper resonance prefer non-dished rails. But since most players simply don't have knowledge of what "could be" they simply don't seek dish-less verses dished facings. They just want it to "play".

I believe this conversation has long been absent from the clarinet mouthpiece world and thank you to those of you who have interest in these wonderful details.

Karl wrote: "So, Brad, is this "dished" tip figured into - a deliberate part of - the design, since the machining will cause it to happen anyway? Or is it a flaw mouthpiece (or blank) designers just live with?

In other words, do mouthpiece designers who know their work will be produced on machines that dish the tips try to compensate in any way, or do they create the design as though the tip would be straight and hope the result will be acceptable?

Does *skilled* hand-(re)facing eliminate the dip?

Karl"

I believe most makers have come to implement their designs and facing architecture around their manufacturing process. So once they have fully developed how they face their mouthpieces, they are unlikely to change, and subsequent design changes are sympathetic to the confinements of production.

I've personally found that by cutting my mouthpiece facings in such a way as to provide both a subtle table concavity - on both axis, AND to produce a dish-less tip rail is the best path, producing the best results. It took the added expense of 5 Axis CNC machining, AND complex software applications to enable that functionality. But it is worth it.

Brad Behn
http://www.clarinetmouthpiece.com

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Reed motion new

Arnoldstang

2021-03-28 23:45