Lengthen facing on Morgan Excalibur?

[sjabariiii]

I play a morgan 7E on alto and am wondering if I would be more comfortable with it if the lay were longer. It feels like the mouthpiece is always trying to come out of my mouth, and I have to fight to take as much as I need. I suspect this is causing me to bite too much. Would having the facing made longer help, and perhaps make it easier to blow?

Or should I try a 6E, or something else before messing with it?

thanks,
ANDYJ

[scale_master]

Andy,
I wouldn't mess with it. Have you tried softer reeds? How far away from the tip are your teethmarks? They should be 1-1.5 inches away.
Also, I noticed that the Excaliburs are relatively thin on the biteplate side, therefore, you tend to take more mouthpiece in your mouth compared to a Meyer e.g. in order to feel the same MP thickness. There are people who use double or extra thick mouthiece patches in order to compensate.


Hope this helps,

B.

[sjabariiii]

I've recently added a thick black toothgard and gone down from #3 Alexander DC to lavoz med. soft or rico jazz select 2S. It's a little easier on my chops and on my teeth this way but I'm still struggling with it. My teeth are way up near the top as I take in almost all of the beak on this thing or else the sound gets weak. It feels more like an angle thing than a size thing.

any other thoughts? Does anyone know whether the facing on the excalibur is in fact shorter than average?

[Ptrick]

I use Ralph's mouthpieces and they are indeed quite thin in the mouth. It sounds to me like your reed is a tad soft. Or maybe you are just biting too hard? Ralph does suggest NOT using patches as they dampen the sound. You might notice the metal band around the shank? The plastic on these mpc's are very thin and the metal shank is needed for re-inforcment. I changed my embrouchure (sp?) now so that my teeth are not on the mpc. I was a 'biter' before and now I am very relaxed in the mouth when playing. It feels strange at first, too be sure, but is really the way to go. The thin plastic was found to vibrate more freely and you could be dampening all that vibration with patches and biting thus less sound until you take a lot of mpc.
Good Luck!