Custom mouthpieces?

[Isuma]

Anybody know of somebody where you can give them the measurements you want and they'll build you the mouthpiece?

[Doug Elliott]

Depending on what you are looking for, my 3-piece system can put together almost anything you might want.

[iiipopes]

Kanstul does. They even send you a computer printout of a cross-section at actual size so you can be sure it is what you want. A couple of years ago I wanted a new mouthpiece when using my recording bell on my 186, especially for outdoors and other places where projection is a primary consideration. I wanted the overall tonality of a Bach 18, with a little deeper cup to get a tad more fundamental, 1.28 cup diameter to match my other mouthpieces instead of stock 1.26, and a @ .325 throat for better breath control rather than the standard Bach that is larger, and a Mt Vernon rim to match the customized rim on my Curry 128D. Jim took their stock 18, tweaked it, and sent it to me. Perfect. Prices may have changed since then, but it only cost me $150 in basic silverplate, since they had a similar model already programmed into their CNC, and only needed to tweak it slightly. If you're going for something original, it will, of course, cost more, say, $300 to $400 or so.

Now, make no mistake: if you're going to go custom, you have to know exactly what you want. When I got a mouthpiece for my upright bell, I didn't know what would match, so I asked Matt @ Dillon Music for a recommendation. He recommended the Curry 128D, which sounded great, but had too wide a rim -- it bumped my nose. So then Vladimir reshaped the rim to suit my embouchure. After that, then I knew exactly what I wanted for the recording bell.

Custom mouthpieces are exactly that: custom. If you don't ask for exactly the right thing, you will get a mouthpiece that is a compromise at best, and not usable at worst. Did I say you gotta know up front exactly what you want?!

So there are four ways to go, in ascending order of price:
1) Stock mouthpiece with a modification;
2) Semi-custom based on a stock model tweaked to suit;
3) Mix-and-match with Doug Elliot's great system;
4) Complete custom designed from scratch.