Mouthpieces Slightly wonky mouthpiece - would it affect playing?

[Little My]

I feel a bit daft at not noticing this before. A few months ago I bought Hite Premiere mouthpieces for both my alto and tenor. Tone/ease of playing was improved significantly on both over the larger tip links I had been playing, but the difference was rather more marked on the alto. Low notes remained less than 100% on the tenor and have done despite practice/long tones.

I was cleaning the tenor mouthpiece yesterday and noticed that there isn't a smooth join where the left hand straight vertical edges joins the u-shaped curve. If I run my finger over it there's a distinct bump and it's visible too. Nothing such on the alto piece. Would this explain the problems, or do I just need to practise more? I can post a photo tomorrow, I haven't got the driver software on this pc yet. Thank you!

 

[Nick Wyver]

I don't quite understand what you mean regarding the 'defect' in the mpc but it doesn't sound good.

 

[Justin Chune]

Both side rails should look the same. Have someone look at it for you.

Jim.

 

[kevgermany]

Is this on the top, where the side rails join the table? If so it's giong to affect the reed and the seal - could give lots of probs. I agree, get someone to look at it. Depending on how long you'Ve had it, you should be able to take it back as this would be a manufacturing defect.

 

[Little My]

Thanks for the replies.

I still can't get either pc to recognise my phone, so no pics. It's flush on the top where the reed would lay on the table, but when you run your finger around the inside edge there is a bit that juts out between the bottom of the left hand vertical rail and the top of the curved bit. It looks like the left rail was misaligned during manufacture. I'll try again with the pics tomorrow.

I think I will go for a new mpc and see if that improves things. Sadly I think I've had it too long to return now.

 

[Morgan Fry]

If it's just sticking out into the chamber it isn't a big problem in itself. What sometimes happens is the window and/or table and facing is cut a little off centre or crooked. Not good, but the difference in rail width isn't very important. What real problems there are with the mouthpiece (assuming there is one) you probably can't see.

 

[Little My]

Thank you Morgan.

I need to get a new cable to try to get a photo off my phone so will update again once I've got the cable. In the meantime I shall carry on practising. Thank you for all the replies, much appreciated.

 

[Little My]

Sorry, a very very late update to this one. I carried on playing and practising with the wonky piece, and am now at the point where my teacher thinks I should look at changing the mouthpiece. To be honest I forgot about it, and clearly it can't have been that much of an issue if it's done me well up to now.

Here's a picture anyway so you can see what my original question was about. It's not a smooth join from the bottom of the left hand rail to the top of the curve.

[/IMG]

 

[baritonesax]

That looks too small to make any difference. As long as that defect doesn't stop the reed lying flat I reckon it should be OK.

 

[kevgermany]

What's it like underneath?

I've got much bigger irregularities in places and these don't affect things.

 

[MandyH]

I've got much bigger irregularities in places and these don't affect things.

)) ))

I'm sure there's a follow-up line to that, but I suspect the forum rules dis-allow me from even thinking about it

)) ))

 

[compound]

What's it like underneath?

I've got much bigger irregularities in places and these don't affect things.

I'm tempted Kev.!

 

[compound]

Hi, I've got a Hite Premier with a tiny nick in the same place as your's, it's for Tenor and i never had any problems with low note's. I would think it's a manufacturing fault.
Rob.

 

[Little My]

Thank you for all the replies! It is fine underneath Kev, and practice has improved things no end. I'm working more on altissimo and harmonics now, which I think is what prompted the mouthpiece discussion, though to be perfectly fair he did also say that switching to a harder reed would help too, and that would definitely be a cheaper route seeing as how I love the sound that I get with the Premiere.

That's interesting Rob, thank you. It's good to know it's not just my mouthpiece. I suppose at the end of the day they are budget mouthpieces.

The reed sits completely flush with the mouthpiece, baritonesax.