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Damaged mouthpiece

PeakeCentral

PeakeCentral

Senior Member
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Location
Tewkesbury
Morning all, here's my sad story.

Years ago, I started learning alto sax on my Martin Handcraft Committee, which my brother 'lent' me in exchange for supplying him with computers for years and years. It had a Brilhart Tonaline mouthpiece, which my teacher of the time suggested I soaked in warm water and Milton.

Well, the water was too warm and the mouthpiece changed shape ever so slightly, meaning it wouldn't play. I came across this sad artefact recently, and wondered whether there is anyone who would take a look at it. I realise it may not be financially worth it, but I thought if I could get advice anywhere, it would be here.

I put a couple of pictures here: <clickety>

Cheers,

Martin
 
Last edited:
It can probably still be refaced.
What d you mean with "so slightly"? Does it still fit on the saxophone neck?
 
It's more than that - the shank is cracked and will probably leak. So it needs the crack fixing and the shank banding, the table fixing, probably the facing is distorted as well, which may be why it doesn't play. Does it have a round bite plate under the stick on one?

Try sending Morgan Fry a pm or email Ed Pillinger, but may not be worth fixing.
 
It's hard to see what's happened from the photo but the table looks distorted. Leveling the table might get it back playing. (Not as easy as it sounds). If you have a repairer nearby see if they have any experience of refacing. A proper refacer would charge more than it's worth, I think.
 
Steve, I suspect you may be right about the financial viability. Indeed, will it be worth it anyway?

And Colin, that could be a path. I'll take a look at the YouTube pieces, and then I'll assess what we have in the DT department at school that could help.

But it's about time I treated myself to another mouthpiece, perhaps I'll pop along to SecondWind this weekend.

Thanks for the advice.

Martin
 
Well it seems you were fond of the mouthpiece and they aren't that easy to find. It depends how much has moved as to how easy it'll be to get it back and how much it'll return to its original state.

I'd stick with one refacer on Youtube and some of the most interesting videos I've found are from Mojobari. (Keith Bradbury). He can be found on Facebook too.

Flattening the table isn't that easy. It's much easier to mess it up than get it right.
 
Steve Marshall said:
Well it seems you were fond of the mouthpiece and they aren't that easy to find. It depends how much has moved as to how easy it'll be to get it back and how much it'll return to its original state.

I'd stick with one refacer on Youtube and some of the most interesting videos I've found are from Mojobari. (Keith Bradbury). He can be found on Facebook too.

Flattening the table isn't that easy. It's much easier to mess it up than get it right.
Click to expand...

Steve, funnily enough I watched some of Mojobari's videos yesterday, which I found really helpful and informative. I'm going to start from the assumption the 'piece is a goner, and hope to move up from there.

Looking at the videos, perhaps my first step should be to try a mouthpiece gauge and some feelers. As an experiment, I will rustle up a gauge on the laser cutter at school. I'll try some nice flat clear 3mm acrylic, and if that's no good I'll have to use glass instead.

Watch this space.

Martin
 

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