Wooden mouthpiece

[Michael Bush]

.

[imperialbari]

Does it come with a pair of tweezers to pull splinters from your embouchure?

K

[ad4m]

Do you still make these?

[opus37]

I do. Mine have an outer profile similar to a Bach mouthpiece.

[Michael Bush]

Do you still make these?

I haven't made one in quite a while.

[ad4m]

Is anyone making and selling them?

[opus37]

Making and selling are two different things. Yes, I make them. No I don't sell them. They are usually gifts for friends or I do it because I can. You see, I'm not prepared to make at least 3 different shank sizes and dozens of cup configurations depending on the needs of customers. Then there is wood selection. I think you can see this can get out of hand rather quickly. These are specialty or novelty items. If you really want one, find a wood turner in your area and supply him/her a mouthpiece to copy. They are not very hard to do and that person likely would enjoy the project.

[Donn]

How thin do you make the wood at the shank end, roughly? Is there any way to toughen up thin wood, like maybe a special poly or something?

If it weren't for that part, I think metal would be a odd material for a mouthpiece.

[opus37]

How thin do you make the wood at the shank end, roughly? Is there any way to toughen up thin wood, like maybe a special poly or something?

If it weren't for that part, I think metal would be a odd material for a mouthpiece.

The thickness of the shank wall is about 2 mm. The very end is reamed to about 1 mm. In my opinion, the end needs little strength so I don't toughen it in any way. Woods like maple, cherry, or walnut seem tough enough.

[joh_tuba]

I don't recall the manufacturer but for a while there was marketed a line of tuba mouthpieces with brass shanks and wooden cups. The cups were made of various exotic woods that purportedly influenced the sound in various ways. I have a friend that owns one, it plays just fine but tastes TERRIBLE! Also, despite our cultural fascination with 'natural' things being better.. many woods are carcinogenic. The manufacturer recommended a regular regimen of oiling the wood to keep it from cracking.

FWIW

[imperialbari]

http://www.lignum-tech.com/

There also was a Spanish maker of wooden mouthpieces for brasses. Name escapes me right now.

Klaus

[Carroll]

Benterfa

[Michael Bush]

How thin do you make the wood at the shank end, roughly? Is there any way to toughen up thin wood, like maybe a special poly or something?

If it weren't for that part, I think metal would be a odd material for a mouthpiece.

I have one here that I have kept in my own collection. It was the first one I made, and I was taking measurements from a Monette 98 as I went along. As anyone who knows that piece has noticed, the shank wall is pretty thick. I would agree that it's in the range of 1.5 to 2 mm, just eyeballing it. But even if it were half that thickness I agree that it wouldn't be especially fragile in wood.

As we've all experienced, the shank end bends easily in brass, but wood is both lighter and more flexible and unless you used a really brittle wood (like, say, ebony) a drop from three or so feet is not going to be catastrophic even if it was quite thin.

You'd be more likely to damage it on the lathe trying to get it thinner than afterwards by dropping it.

[Donn]

I would agree that it's in the range of 1.5 to 2 mm, just eyeballing it. But even if it were half that thickness I agree that it wouldn't be especially fragile in wood.

...

You'd be more likely to damage it on the lathe trying to get it thinner than afterwards by dropping it.

Is that why it's thicker here than a brass mouthpiece? By my crude measurements, standard shank wall dimensions near the end are a little less than 1 mm, maybe 1/32", and then a `countersink' taper to an edge I didn't try to measure. I wouldn't bet those dimensions don't make a difference, so I was assuming the thick walled shanks I've seen in pictures of wood mouthpieces were needed because of the limitations of the material.

[Eflatdoubler]

I had tried a trombone wooden mouthpiece about 15 years ago and I believe it was by Benterfa. It wasn't for me but I appreciated the quality wood work. Not sure who makes any now.

[MrHidan30]

So does anyone produce similar tuba mouthpieces for retail? Lithiumtech offers euphonium one's, but none for tuba.
Also, it would be an insane venture, but a wooden mouthpiece on a wooden tuba would be a real head turner. Kind of like Chuck Daellenbach's plastic horn.