Opening up the chamber on a Custom?

[MPL]

I'm trying out a #5 Custom Spoiler but I can't play it in tune at all...it's around +20 cents from the bottom to the top of my Martin Committee baritone, and I suspect the chamber is too small for the horn. But I like the ease of blowing this mouthpiece, and that spoiler really does give the horn a little extra oomph.

So can the chamber on one of these be opened up enough to play more in tune on my horn? Who can do it?

[MojoBari]

Let's first understand your problem. Are you saying that every note you play is 20 cents sharp? Or is the top sharp as compared to the bottom? Do other mouthpieces play in tune for you? Have you done the mouthpiece pitch exercise?

[MPL]

I meant exactly that. Every note from the low Bb up to the top F was around 20-25 cents sharp, with a couple being even farther out than th`t, and the one exception was the middle C# - which was, predictably enough, just about in tune!

This occurred with the spoiler installed, and with the Custom about as far out on the cork as I thought practical - any further out and it would have been too loose on the neck to play without wobbling. I'm guesstimating, but I think it covered a little more than 3/4" of the cork.

For comparison, I usually use a Meyer 5 that gives me no intonation problems at all, and usually covers an inch or more of the cork. Of course the other solution would be to recork the neck, but I don't want to give up using the Meyer either. And no, I haven't tried the mouthpiece pitch test but that would be a good idea.

[MojoBari]

Having 2 or more mouthpieces with different bores is a pain. You can use strips of paper wrapped around the cork to get a tighter fit on the Runyon. Teflon tape is better, but is a little harder to strip off. I sometimes enlarge the smaller-than-average bores. I have occassionally made large bores smaller too by coating the inside with epoxy and sanding them smooth.

1" to 3/4" is not much cork to hold onto a bari sax mouthpiece. The mouthpiece exercise may show that you are using a tight embouchure that makes you play sharp unless you pull out a lot.

A larger chamber will help you push in more, but the high notes will probably stay sharp.

A mouthpiece or neck extension is fair game too, but usually a loat resort.

[MPL]

I've since chatted with Leroy at Runyon, and he's going to try and enlarge the chamber a bit for me.

Even if I can't get this Custom to work on my Martin, I'm keeping it for future use on that elusive low A horn whenever I get around to getting one.

The few modern low A horns that I've tried all seemed to suffer by comparison tone-wise, so I think the added noisiness of the spoiler can help those horns sound thicker. On a Yamaha 52, Vito VSP (the Yani 901 copy), and a Yani 991, I really had to push the Meyer all the way in to the end of the cork to play in tune. So I suspect the Runyon tuning won't be an issue for these later horns.

[MojoBari]

The metal part of the Spoiler insert is pretty much decorative in my opinion. You can clip it off and not notice a change in tone. The plastic part (removable baffle) does all the work. It gives the bari some cut. Nice on the Runyon Custom, but a bit too much on the Quantum. It makes the tone too bratty for my taste.