DIY mouthpiece 'adjustment'

Bobby G · Jul 9, 2006

Some questions about 'adjusting' a mouthpiece. I have an indeterminate tenor mouthpiece that I don't mind messing up, and want to have a go at 'adjusting' it. It has no markings, and works ok now but with a fairly 'average' sort of sound. I'd say it's probably a plastic student piece, designed to get you going on note production rather than tone.

If I remove a few thou evenly from the table, this will decrease the tip opening, right? What effect will this have on the sound, if any?

Similarly, if I gently remove a bit from the rails towards the tip this will increase the tip opening. Won't it also increase the width of material at the tip as well, or would I have to file in 2 directions sort of thing? Will this have any effect on the sound, or will I just end up with a slightly harder-to-blow piece that may require a softer reed?

Would it be possible to create a baffle to increase airflow, which presumably would brighten the sound? Would the baffle need to be an integral part of the piece e.g. made of resin or something similar so as to resonate along with the rest of the mpc? Or could some other substance be utilised that would merely lessen the size of the chamber? Maybe not blu-tack, but y'know :S

Finally, is it possible to enlarge the chamber, presumably to darken the sound? How would this be done?

I'm looking on this as analagous to experimenting with reed doctoring, and as I say I don't mind if I end up with an unusable mouthpiece as I'm not using it anyway, although obviously I'd like one that works 😉

Cheers, Bob

saxismyaxe · Jul 10, 2006

Some of the things a beginner can do (very judiciously, mind you) is to thin out and straighten up to true the tip and side rails, smooth the interior baffle and bore area, refine the interior table window at the base of the table, and if needed you can experiment with baffles. A pea sized ball of Sculpy, Blue Tac etc. will suffice for testing, and once the location, size and shape combination most suitable is discovered, a more permanent one can be made from Milliput, Epoxy putty, Sculpy (mold it to shape, remove from mouth piece with scalpel blade, bake to harden, and glue back in place) etc.
I use emery cloth, fine micro rifflers, swiss needle files, foam backed emery sanding sticks, steel wool and a Dremel motor tool with a variety of bits (at slow speed settings, especially on plastic!) to do a lot of the work.
Without the proper gauge and tools (and a lot of experience) I wouldn't tackle refacing the table yet. This is a delicate, precise "art" that can go shockingly bad with just a hair width error. Save that for later IMHO.

Bobby G · Jul 10, 2006

Nice one, Michael, thanks. As the piece is fairly comfortable to play, it's the baffle and bore I really want to experiment with.

Experimental baffles using blu-tack, eh? That sounds good to me.

saxismyaxe · Jul 10, 2006

Hi Bob,
Here is a group I belong to that might be of interest to you:
Mojo's site has a lot of good info for Mouthpiece refinishers/refacers:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MouthpieceWork/
Cheers.