Mouthpiece Duplication

[Alex C]

For what it is worth, a duplicated mouthpiece will probably not play like the original. I've had the "big boys" of the mouthpiece world duplicate mouthpieces and they are vastly different animals. If you can get the same mouthpiece blank to start, you have a chance. The might even get the rim right.

The cup is a challenge but since it is so big, they usually copy that pretty well.

The throat is quite difficult to copy exactly. We are not just talking about a drill size, the length of the throat is critical, as is the possibility there is a taper within the throat with a different taper than the backbore. The entrance to the throat is also critical and every mouthpiece maker has his own way of cutting that. As well as the exit from the throat. It is relatively easy to copy a backbore (not easy, but relatively) yet the guy running the cutting machine will often look and say, "That looks about like our #4 bit," when it is something else entirely.

I have had one mouthpiece copied exactly. It was a euphonium mouthpiece. Dick Barth (of BMB design, production and sales) looked at a mouthpiece I loved and said (flippantly I might add), "Oh, I can make that for you. I'll send a copy to you in a couple of weeks." He did and it played as identically as possible. He took no measurements, just eyeballed and made it from memory. Yes, he nailed the rim, cup, throat and backbore. The man is a genius!

[Norm Pearson]

For what it is worth, a duplicated mouthpiece will probably not play like the original. I've had the "big boys" of the mouthpiece world duplicate mouthpieces and they are vastly different animals.

Exact copies are difficult for many reason. I was a custom mouthpiece maker for Joe Marcinkiewicz in the early 80's. On the rare occasion I would nail a copy there was one more obstacle, the buffing room! I can't tell you how many close copies came back as different mouthpieces by over zealous buffers. Brass is soft and it is easy to over buff especially the bite. Most of the copies we made were approximations of the original.

Norm

[pete]

For what it is worth, a duplicated mouthpiece will probably not play like the original. I've had the "big boys" of the mouthpiece world duplicate mouthpieces and they are vastly different animals.

Exact copies are difficult for many reason. I was a custom mouthpiece maker for Joe Marcinkiewicz in the early 80's. On the rare occasion I would nail a copy there was one more obstacle, the buffing room! I can't tell you how many close copies came back as different mouthpieces by over zealous buffers. Brass is soft and it is easy to over buff especially the bite. Most of the copies we made were approximations of the original.

Norm

Any idea on what kind of dimensional accuracy you need for a good copy?

Using Cnc lathes or sls metal printers it should be possible to achieve very precise results - if you have a way to measure the mouthpiece that is. With desktop plastic 3d printers you can achieve about +- 0.05-0.1mm accuracy if you calibrate it well and don't print too fast, but since you need some kind of sanding or chemical smoothing at least for the rim it's a bit more tricky than just printing to get consistent results.