Mouthpieces & Inquiring minds

[Chuck(G)]

After ditching another mouthpiece-that-played-just-fine-out-of-the-box-but-was-really-terrible-after-a-couple-of-moths, I was wondering if anyone has done any work attempting to match a mouthpiece to a mouth by examining the curvature of the jaw, over/under bite size, tooth placement, etc. ?

IOW, has anyone looked into designing a "fit kit" for mouthpieces?

Chuck "back to the helleberg"(G)

[Mark]

After ditching another mouthpiece-that-played-just-fine-out-of-the-box-but-was-really-terrible-after-a-couple-of-moths, ...

Maybe it would last longer if you put mothballs in your mouthpiece pouch.

[Chuck(G)]

Maybe it would last longer if you put mothballs in your mouthpiece pouch.

Mmmmm, naphthalene....

[Chuck(G)]

Do you mean, like a personally fit mouthpiece, like a well fitting suit? That would be cool.

Jawohl, und possibly lucrative, nein?

[Joe Baker]

After ditching another mouthpiece-that-played-just-fine-out-of-the-box-but-was-really-terrible-after-a-couple-of-moths, I was wondering if anyone has done any work attempting to match a mouthpiece to a mouth by examining the curvature of the jaw, over/under bite size, tooth placement, etc. ?

IOW, has anyone looked into designing a "fit kit" for mouthpieces?

Chuck "back to the helleberg"(G)

Didn't Doug Elliot do that for Art Hovey? Quoting from Art's website:

My Special Mouthpiece
Because of the way my teeth grew, I was unable to prevent air from escaping from the sides of my mouthpiece without using a lot of pressure. I began experimenting with "wrap-around rims" many years ago, and found that they enable me to play with much less pressure, making high notes possible.
At one time I used even more curvature than this, but I found that it interfered with the low register.

Doug Elliot made this mouthpiece for me. He gave me some extra plastic to work with on the rim, and I sculpted it myself into the shape that I wanted. Doug also made an extra-long shank for me (not pictured here) which was very helpful for one of my tubas.

The picture isn't named as a "jpg", and won't display directly, but click this link & go down to #19 on the list:
http://www.galvanizedjazz.com/tuba.html

______________________________
Joe Baker, who will use one "off the rack", thanks!

[Chuck(G)]

I have a bunch of digital info on a variety of mpcs. I could modify any mouthpiece you wanted to any diameter, depth, or any variation there of and cut you a CD. Different rim? No problem... It's done on one of the most powerful CAD systems on the planet, but the the problem would be that once you had it cut, you'd still have to play it!

I bought a CNC lathe, but sold it at a profit to finance a King-daddy lathe. Still shopping for a good price. Fitting any face won't be a problem once I land it...

If you have a stereolith rig to make the real things, you may have something there!

[Chen]

http://www.henkrensink.nl/

[dave]

old it at a profit to finance a King-daddy lathe

LV, what is a King-daddy lathe? Something like this comes to mind:




-Dave

[Chuck(G)]

http://www.henkrensink.nl/

If I read this web site right, this guy will measure you and then recommend a mouthpiece from his stock. In other words, he doesn't actually make mouthpieces, right?

[tubeast]

By the way, folks,
on those pics you see lathes with tool supports and 4-jaw-chucks used for woodturning. If you can live with the scratching as opposed to cutting the material, that´s fine.
It´s YOUR ears and discomfort.

Just make sure you don´t use a toolrest and handheld tools with the jaws of the chuck protruding from the body, will ya ?

[Chen]

http://www.henkrensink.nl/

If I read this web site right, this guy will measure you and then recommend a mouthpiece from his stock. In other words, he doesn't actually make mouthpieces, right?

I think so. He claims to have every brand (from A to Z) of mouthpiece. And then he makes recommendations on modifications if needed.

[Chuck(G)]

Anything out of a SL machine is so brittle that you can make a great visual aid to discuss, but that's about it.

I was after a "how does this feel on your face? " quick prototype, not a for-use object. But a mouthpiece is a fairly simple shape; it might be just as fast and economical to machine the prototype from acrylic (as opposed to going with brass and plating it), which could then actually be used to see how it worked.

Youi're the expert!

[Philip Jensen]

In general, we can fairly safely assume that a shallow cup will give a brighter tone than a deep one.

So,

What I've always wondered, along Chuck's line, is what about lip size and shape?

For the sake of discussion: (purely hypothetical here)
If you have a wide mouth, then generally you have better results with a larger diameter cup/funnel, and those with smaller mouths don't do well on larger mouthpieces (and vice versa). (or the whole thing reversed?)

If you have big lips, increase the cup diameter, thin lips, decrease.

If you have big lips, go for a wide rim, thinner lips, narrower rim.

Is there any trend? Any thoughts?

I'd be curious to see what people play on, and then what kind of lips they have - wide or narrow, and thick or thin.

[tubamirum]

are there any free picture hosting websites?

[Chuck(G)]

Please check out my screw rim. Good players can hit a G above whatever.
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All I see is a Tripod icon that says you can't link to a photo.

[tubatooter1940]

Tubamirium,no matter what note you may hit with that thing,it looks really painful.