MP for New Wonder Bari

[Grumps]

I have a Conn New Wonder baritone from the early twenties which will only play in tune with one of those old style, big barreled, large chambered mouthpieces. Tough thing is, is that these pieces are generally not very open, nor do they project well (with the exception of an old Woodwind Co. I managed to scrape up in a trade). Any modern mouthpiece I try has to sit at the very end of the neckpipe for any shot at being in tune, and even then, the D2-F#2 are still way too sharp. Does anyone make these old styled, big barreled, large chambered mouthpieces anymore that are more open with decent projection?

[MusicMedic]

Babbitt makes a good open-chambered MP. It's somewhere in-between a Caravan and a Rascher. The Rascher's are more closed. The Babbitt MP is very good and not too expensive. It would be a good one to have opened up. I use (what I think is) an old Conn blank that I have opened several times. It plays well.
I also have an old metal link that has a HUGE open chamber. It was refaced by Jey Clark at Saxmouthpiece.com that's a great piece.

I just gave my Berg Larson (don't know the name but it was one of those ones that looks like wood and is reddish) to a friend. That played pretty well on my Conn. He got a Conn and needed a MP for it. He agreed that it plays well.

[MTKilpatrick]

Hope you read this, a month after your original posting...

....Keep looking out for Woodwind Co mouthpieces, and when you find one, work on it. They're quite different to modern, smaller chambered mouthpieces - I'm not sure if I could play one, as I only use Woodwind Co! As for the projection: if Harry Carney could get that sound using one, somebody else must be able to get at least something respectable out of one!

I have collected eight or nine Woodwinds in search of the best one, either B4, B4*, B5, B5*, B6, and the regular models as well as the "Sparkle-Aire".

Some of them had been butchered by those thugs who think that opening them out helps. I find that once you do that to a Woodwind, it loses all its tone. Any that I get that have been butchered, they go in the bin. If people could play them in the 1930s, there's no reason why you can't play one today, in its original form!

Michael

[Grumps]

Hiya Michael,
I've got a WW Co. K6 for baritone and it's my number one piece for my Conn New Wonder. I agree with you that refacing one of these pieces would ruin it and I also avoid refaced pieces like the plague. I read your other post on the Leblanc/WW Co. thread and I was wondering if you knew the difference between the B's and the K's?

[MTKilpatrick]

I really can't see much difference between my K6* and one of my B5's. I've got model B's with both the larger and smaller chambers. My one K6* has the smaller chamber with almost straight sides. I much prefer playing on the larger chambered models, as the tone seems richer to me. My favourite is a B5. I've also got a B4 and a B4* which look a bit more modern - or it could be that my B5s have been played more and been out in the sun, as the sulphur is surfacings. The B4s are still shiny and black.

The K6* says ""Woodwind Co, Kenosha, WIS", not "Woodwind Co New York".

Michael