Modifying Mouthpieces

[markieg]

I currently play on a Hite Premier plastic piece with a .069 facing. I want to go wider but don't have the dinero right now. Is there a way to widen it without ruining the piece? Thanks in advance!

[markieg]

I forgot to mention, I play alto.

[sjabariiii]

I've never tried, but my impression is you really need to know what you're doing or you'll mess the thing up. Harder reeds might help in the meantime. Or pick up a used meyer 6 or something, shouldn't be very expensive.

-ANDYJ

[MojoBari]

I recommend you find some jobs to get $50-60 to buy a new piece. Mow some lawns, sit on some kids, wax a car.

Its a bad idea to mess with your main piece, even if you have the right tools and skill.

[markieg]

My problem is I don't want to spend 50-60, I want a metal piece next. That'll take some time. I do have the original piece that came with my sax, which makes it about 40 years old and a POS. I was going to experiment on that and then work on my piece next. Check out this page:
http://www.jonvanwie.com/mpcfacts/factmain.html
The suggestion I figured out by reading all of this, is that if you click on Tip Opening it suggests that if you want a wider tip, shave a little off the baffle, and then if you look at the baffle on the 2nd pic of the diagram it shows you an easy place to start on the baffle.

[MojoBari]

Just realize that you want a metal piece, you do not need a metal piece. A Runyon Custom Spoiler will probably serve your needs just fine. That's what I use.

See http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MouthpieceWork/

for what is involved to do a good job.

[Kosma]

Who wants odds that markie ruins his piece? Come on- million to one!

Hey markie- Listen to mojo and save yourself the years of mouthpiece frustration, confusion, and ignorance that I and countless others endured who came up before the internet.

[Johannes Gerber]

hehe :-)

Yea.

I ruined a few pieces before I met Jon. I had the right idea, but had no glass gauge.:-) (remember, this is Africa, you just don't get it here, no one even knows about it.) A while later, I had a few pieces I could 'repair', and after some more time sold them all.

[markieg]

Well I did it, and I don't feel too stupid. I have mpc's to spare (2 Hites, the original with my old one I talked about earlier, the original w/ my Selmer Bundy II, and a Yamaha that I found on the band storage room floor a few years ago. I first experimented on my worst one to see what the change would be.It was actually great, so I moved on to one of the Hites. It was a change in the right direction, but not enough, so I went a little farther. It worked just as I hoped. I first sanded down the baffle quite a bit (I'm going to stop here, and say that I used very fine sandpaper specifically designed for plastic; I worked in a plastic molding factory so I know what this is), then I used an exacto-knife to shave a little off the siderails, more towards the tip than the back of the mpc. Then I sanded down the tip to make it flush with the sidewalls. I reshaped it to more of a point since itwas dull, and then I used the exacto-knife to define the tip rail more. I'll have to get some new sound clips. You just have to hear this sound to believe the difference it made.

[Kosma]

I must say that sounds pretty impressive! If your goal is to learn the art of refacing then I wish you all the best. Sounds like you have the right idea. All the more reason to listen to mojo!

[Johannes Gerber]

Good luck, if refacing is you intention.

Once you get a glass gauge and feelers, you'll enjoy it a lot more, cause then you won't guess but be able to measure.

And soon many frustrations will start as well.

Keep it up!

[MojoBari]

Congrats markieg! Messing with junk mouthpieces is fair game. It does sound like you have the attention to detail needed for this kind of work.

A glass gage from Babbitt only costs ~$15 and a Asian made set of feeler gages can be found for $7. These are needed to measure the facing curve and the symmetry of the rails. You'll find that you can play on more open tips if the rails have even curves. If the curves are uneven, the piece will play with some additional resistance. You can compensate some by shaving the reed to work well with the mouthpiece. But it is more conveniant to have a mouthpiece that makes most stock reeds play well.

[markieg]

Thanx alot guyz, that's a really big help. I don't know if I really want to get into refacing, but this has really made me think about it. Just as long as early success doesn't get my hopes up too much. This was just part of my quest for a better sound. Switching reeds from a LaVoz hard to a Van Java 4 is my next plan, and I need to get a new lig instead of my generic metal.

[MojoBari]

Here's another idea to check your rails. Slap a flat reed on your rewored piece and insert a business card between the reed and the MP. See if it is tilted. That indicates one rail lower than the other at that point. A business card is .007-.008" thick. A refacer starts with a .0015" feeler and then goes gradually thicker in steps until they get to the tip. You can try 2 business cards, etc. Crude, but better than nothing.

[markieg]

Hey Mojo, thanks for that last one. I used a couple of playing cards. Miraculously from the tip to about 3/4 inch back were even, but the next 1/2 inch later the left side was more open than the right. I played it after making the sides even and didn't notice a difference, but I've heard that uneven mpc's can ruin reeds a lot quicker.

[MojoBari]

Eveness on the tip end is more important.

[djonk]

I, djonk, was fortunate to win a free mouthpiece reface job, by Mr. MojoBari. I wish to express here to all of the readers, that he did a superb job, for me.

He not only refaced my Johnson Selmer NY tenor mouthpiece, to a larger tip opening and a long facing, but he also blended a new baffle tip contour out of a botched up previous alteration.

Very neat work, Thanks Mojo. BTW: the playing is the proof of a good job. I like the way it plays for me.

[MojoBari]

Background info: Paul Coats and I gave away some prizes in celebration of the 1 year anniversary of the Yahoo MouthpieceWork site. I generated random numbers and matched them up with message numbers to see who posted it. It took several numbers to get the winners since Paul and I do most of the posting!