Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • Clarinet Mouthpiece Refacing

    Uploaded by

    ggest
    506 views11 pages

    Original Title

    clarinet mouthpiece refacing

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    506 views11 pages

    Clarinet Mouthpiece Refacing

    Uploaded by

    ggest

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 11
    Moutuplieces Ciarinet Moutupiece REFACING by Brick D. Brond We are grateful to Ferree's Tools, Inc. for permission to reprint the following article written by Erick D. Brand in 1939. Itwas taken from his Band Instrument Repairing Manual. Refacing Mouthpieces Facing a mouthpiece by hand is an art. As such, in common with other ars, there are vaious ways of arivng at the same result. “Anyone doing successful mouthpiece facing on methods other than shown here should not consider the writer to be accusing them of using the wrong methods. your present results are successful, change your method only you can futher improve your work, ‘Wherever possible, several methods are given, and it Is more or less up to the operator to select the method best sulted to his own way of working. Tothose who are taking up the art of mouthpiece facing forthe first time, I would say read this chapter through completely before at- tempting any work at all. Merely reading the chapter isnot going to helo, either. Itis absolutely necessary to practice. For this purpose The Morgan Mouthpiece Refacing Kit ‘Auailable from Ferree’ Tools, Inc. @ $180.00 The kit includes one large special glass surface plate, one glass direct reading gauge, one special tip opening gauge ‘which can be used in measuring thicknesses for other pur- Poses as well as mouthpiece tips, one set of feeler gauges, 3 Files, 1 block white finish (to polish rubber), 1 piece ‘chamois (to polish lays), box to hold entire outfit one com- plete instruction book, and a generous quantity of abra- sive paper. {© 2000 Lawrence P Kmser and The Woodwind Quartery Use old mouthpieces, which will mean no loss in the event that they are ruined, Accuracy in every stage of the work is of utmost importance. One who is not accurate will never do consistently good facing When duplicating samples it must be remembered that the bore, tone chamber, and material the mouthpiece Is made of have as much influence on the playing qualities ofthe mouthpiece as the lay, if not more. Its almost impossible to make any rubber mouth- piece play like a crystal or metal mouthpiece. If there Is consider- able difference in the bore or tone chamber of the sample and the ‘mouthpiece you are to reface, you will have a hard time satisfying your customer The Erick Brand Scientific System Inthe past, each manufacturer of mouthpieces has used an indi- vidual system of marking the lays that has no relation to any other system. The marks themselves do not mean anything definite in any commonly used system of measuring, Many manufacturers hhave changed their mouthpieces frequently by improving certain popular lays and retaining the old lay markings. Therefore, you will find many mouthpieces marked alike that have diferent lays. tis true there would be no great difference unless they have been refaced, but you will find some difference. To overcome this, a system has been worked out that allows for practically unlimited additions and changes, but enables one to use a spedal lay desig- nation number mark for every different lay, no matter how mi- ‘utely diferent itis. ‘The gauges inthis kit are based on this new system. Lay markings. in this system, for any mouthpiece, are determined as follows. The entire system is based on the Metric system of measurement, (@inch=25.4 mm), Thisis done for several reasons, ne of whichis thatthe Metric system eliminates the use of racions, such as 1/64, 1/32, etc Everything fs based on multiples of 10, making it much easier to figure than in our inch system. The use of the Metric system allows measurements tobe converte into numbers much easier than our own system does. While we know thatthe cure of a lay is asimportant,f not more so, than the length or tip opening, a study of mouthpieces has revealed few playable lays that have the same length and opening measurements but different curves. Thatis, mouthpieces withthe same facing number by the Brand System will usually have the same cure. 47 Clorinet Mouthpiece Refcing So that the system will not be too complicated, the lays or facings are marked in accordance with the length and tip openings only. ‘The cune is disregarded in the marking (wien refacing the curve {most important, All markings used in the system are in numbers of five figures. ‘Analyzing a typical marking under the Brand System: 30125 First two figures (30) indicate the length in 1/2 milimeter steps. ‘+ Lastthree figures (125) indicate the tip opening in hun= dredths of a millimeter, A a a ITA [/? Mouthpieces Parts of a Facing Fig. 93 Point A is where the curve of the lay stats from the flat table, rat least as nearly so as a.0015* feeler gauge will measure. Actually, the curve will go a very small fraction of an inch beyond the actual point measured by the gauge because of the thickness of the gauge. B is the point measured with the 010" feeler. The curve be- tween A and B is rather gradual and is the section of the lay that is responsible forthe sensitive control of the reed by lip pressure. One ofthe most important points of the ay isthe spot between B and C. This is what we call the break (marked Fin Fig, 93) Itis also known by such names as pivot or resistance section, Itis the point where the reed leaves the lay under actual playing conditions by a player with a devel- ‘oped embouchure. The curve at this point becomes Fig, 91 - Above: Taper Gauge Fig, 92 - Right: Glass Direct Reading Gauge The length is gauged by use of the direct reading gauge and the 0015" feeler. (See page 49). Because we need a finer measure- ment than a single milimeter and do not wish to use fractions, the millimeter measurement is multiplied by 2 to give the fist two figures of the code number; i . the figure 30 in number above ‘equals 15 millimeters. A length of 15 1/2 mm would be indicated by the number 31, ‘The tip opening is gauged with the glass direct reading gauge and the taper gauge. In the code number above, the figures 125 in ‘ate 1.25 mm, of an opening of 1 and 25/100 miimeters. Atthe time ofthis writing (1939) and since July 1, 1938, all Selmer ‘and Seimer-sponsored mouthpieces have been marked by this sys- tem, which enables you to determine and duplicate the exact mea~ ‘surements of the original facing. 48 ‘somewhat sharper. This point of the lay can also be likened somewhat tothe bridge or nut ofa stringed instrument, onl its position and form are even more delicate, ‘The point from C to Eis most generally known as the vent section of, the lay. There i some difference of opinion as to the exact form this should have, but from experience gained in refacing mouthpieces, and from measuring many other mouthpieces refaced by experts, | find this to always be a curve, even though it might be almost a straight line on some mouthpieces. tis, nevertheless, not abso- lutely straight tis tre that its easier to make lays with the vent section straight or almost straight, but a somewhat more curved surface is to be preferred for the best tone. Point B is measured with the 010" gauge, point C with the .024" gauge, and point D with the 034" gauge. In the case of most saxo- phone mouthpieces, wth the exception of soprano, the 050" gauge Is used between the point D and Ein Fig. 93 Point E, or the tip, s measured with the taper gauge and this mea- surement is usually called the tip opening, ‘The points marked G, H, and | In Fig. 94 are known by many ‘names, and to avoid confusion inthis article, and possible misun- (© 2000 Lawence P Kimser and The Woodwind Quartet Mouthpieces derstanding, we ae going to use the following tems throughout the article for hese particular points on the mouthpiece. LEFT 2 RIGHT i Fig. 94 Point G will be called the tip rail The width at this point is very important, and will be taken up later under the actual facing in- structions, Points H and | are the rails, H being the left and I the right. I'the tone chamber is of the proper size, the width ofthe side rail is not a important as most other shapes and measurements ofthe mouth Piece facing, The rails, however, should be dressed so that they are ‘not too wide, ifor nothing else than the sake of appearance. The method of dressing the side rails to form willbe taken up later. Point Js what we will call the baffle. This point is often neglected when refacing a mouthpiece and itis the cause of much trouble when itis incorrectly formed. There is also some difference of opin- {on as to the exact shape the baffle should have. In my opinion this should be nearlya straight line when viewed lengthwise or verti- cally as the cutis placed in this article. tt willbe slightly concave between the rails. This concave curve should not be too pronounced, should not look like a half circle, neither should it be a straight line. The lengthwise contour of the baffe is at its best when nearly straight. Extreme convex or concave curves should be avoided here The closer tothe tip rail the more nearly a straight line It should be. How To Gauge a Mouthpiece Facing First notice the marks on the glass direct reading gauge. The ‘ross-wise lines are spaced exactly one milimeter apart. You will notice the numbers, 10, 20, 30, etc, are spaced at five millimeter intervals. For the purpose of gauging mouthpieces for length, one millimeter graduations are just litte too coarse for really fine work. ‘The next ne of division inthe regular millimeter scale is one-tenth millimeter, but this would be too fine for practical purposes. We take the liberty of using the standard one millimeter spacing and counting each millimeter as two points in the marking system. This is the reason that the five millimeter markis labelled No. 10. Leav- ing out the halF-milimeter marks makes the gauge somewhat easier toread, IFin use, a reading comes halfway between the frst and second lines after the number 30, the number is called No. 33. If this ‘numbers to be transposed into a measurement that will be under- 1© 2000 Lawrence P Kmser and The Woodwind Quartely ‘lorinet Mouthpiece Refocing stood by most mechanics, it should be called 16 1/2 millimeters. In ‘other words, to reduce the lay marking number to a millimeter measurement, divide that number in halt For the purpose of mouthpiece facing and the instructions in this article, we wll refer to the markings on the direct reading gauge as ‘numbers rather than millimeters and hal millimeter. ‘When getting ready to gauge a mouthpiece, wipe the marked side ofthe glass gauge absolutely clean, Be sure itis fee from all grt or particles that would tend to raise the gauge when itis laid on the ‘mouthpiece and give you a false reading, Also wipe the facing of the mouthpiece in the same manner. Fig. 95 - Locating the glass gauge on the mouthpiece. Place the glass direct reading gauge on the lay ofthe mouthpiece as shown in Figure 95. The marked sie i aid against the facing so that you read the markings through the glass. This gives you an accurate reading even if you do not ook at the gauge at an abso- lute right angle. The end of the gauge with the markings on it should be even with the tip of the mouthpiece as shown. ‘The two parallel ines running the lang way on the gauge are there to help you place the gauge on the lay straight. Do not have the glass gauge at an angle in relation to the lay or your readings will notbe correct. Now you are ready to start using the feeler gauges to plotthe curve ofthe facing, Fist take the.0015" feeler and ascertain if there are any hollow spots on what's supposed tobe the flat part ofthe lay, Ty to insert the feeler as in Figure 96. Press very lightly with lef thumb on glass gauge during this test. 49 lrinet Mouthpiece Refacing Fig. 96 - Testing for hollow or sunken lay with feeler and glass gauges. there is a hollow spot there, you must make some allowance in ‘your gauging frit. In other words, the readings you will get will be somewhat short ofthe actual reading required to make a duplicate ofthat lay. This is because when the reed is clamped on the mouth- piece, itwill follow the contour of a concave lay, whereas the glass ‘gauge does not. ‘Now, hold the mouthpiece and gauge more firmly, being sure that the gauge is straight on the mouthpiece and even with the tip. Insert the 0015" feeler between the glass gauge and the mouth- piece from the tip, as shown in Fig. 97. Fig. 97 - Measuring length of lay with feeler and glass gauges. Allof the feelers as they are used must be brought down to a place ‘where they definitely stop, but they should not be forced between the gauge and the mouthpiece in such a way as to separate the two even by a very small amount One soon becomes accustomed to the “fee” ofthe gauge so that itcan be brought in contact with both 50 Mouthpieces rails of the mouthpiece and the glass gauge atthe same time. Do this by moving the outer end that you" holding in your right hand tup and down in such a way that i frst touches one rail and then the other. Finally workit dow to a spot where it comes torestin the ‘wedge formed by both rails and the glass gauge. Write down the reading you get from the glass direct reading gauge with the .0015" feeler on a slip of paper. This is the length ofthe particular lay you are gauging. Nex take the.010"feeler gauge and repeat the operation described above. Write the resulting number ditectly under the number obtained with the.0015* gauge. Do this with all the feeler gauges that you can enter into the tip of that mouthpiece in order of thickness, and write their respective ‘numbers under each other on the slip of paper. Usually clarinet ‘mouthpieces and soprano saxophone mouthpieces will only allow four of the feeler gauges to be used. The other mouthpieces will permitthe use ofthe largest feeler gauge marked.050" ‘Some lays will be found to be crooked and give you a different reading on each ral In this case itis well to make iwo columns of figures, giving the reading of each rail separately (see Fig. 98) oat Oo18 Just because a lays crooked is no quar- anteethatitis not right There are quite | 2 few prominent musicians playing lays | a VM Fig. 98- Feeler gauge readings that are purposely crooked. Ifa lays con- sistently low on one side and the player finds the mouthpiece to his liking, itis best to face any duplicate for him the same way, unless he prefers a straight lay. In this case, compromise the iffer- ences on each gauge reading and develop your straight lay from the result. It may require some changing to sult the customer. ‘Now, while you are sill holding the glass gauge on the mouthpiece, and as forthe fecler gauge readings, you are ready to use the taper gauge. The taper gauge is really also a thickness gauge, but made the form of a taper so that t will give an accurate reading along ts graduations. This gauge is very accurately made and is correct to ‘within 1/100 milimeter, which is equivalent to just under 0004". ‘The thickness measurements are again lid out according to a mil- limeter scale because of ts better adaptation to mouthpiece work. ‘The numbers engraved on the gauge read from No. 90 to No. 220 indicating the number of one-hundredths of a milimeter thick the gauge is at that exact point In other words, the reading at the point ‘marked 150 means that the gauge is one and one-half millimeters. thick at this point. For the purpose of measuring mouthpieces, we will merely refer to these readings as numbers. Bath the readings on the direct reading glass gauge and the taper gauge were purposely made tobe easily Converted into units of measure that would be understood by me- chanics for the purposes of comparison or duplication of lays with © 2000 Lawrence P, Kiser and The Woodwind Quarety Moutoeces other gauging systems, thal may be in use i the purpose of correspondence. ssome shops and for ‘You will natice that one side of the gauge is rounded. This is done to insure the extreme tip opening reading, Ifa flat gauge were used it ‘would only give you the exact reading at the comers ofthat gauge instead of at the center ofthe arc of the mouthpiece tp, Insert the taper gauge atthe tip ofthe mouthpiece between the tip fall and the glass dtect reading gauge toa point where it touches both, being sure that the gauge is placed midway between the two rails and parallel to them, (See Figure 99) Fig. 99 - Taking the tip ‘opening reading with taper and glass gauges © 2000 Lawrence P. Kiser and The Woodwind Quarery Clrinet Mouttpece Refacing Here, again, one must be careful not to force the taper gauge in the space s0 as to lift the glass gauge from the mouthpiece. When you have the gauge inserted propery take the reading and add itto the bottom of your column of figures. Itis always necessary to gauge a mouthpiece before you reface it ‘and find out just where you must remove material to produce the {acing desired, you are refacing a mouthpiece for a customer who ‘wants a duplicate of some other mouthpieces plot each curve sepa- rately. Fa mouthpiece is brought to you to be refaced to one of the various makers popular lays, refer to tables in the back of instruc- tion book furnished with the refacing outfit and use that as your sample ly, ‘This may sometimes lead you astray because your customer may have tried a certain makers mouthpiece that he liked very well and ‘noted the markings thereon, Everything willbe well f that mouth- piece has not warped or been refaced since it eft the factory. All you can do in such a case, if you cannot gauge the actual ‘mouthpiece your customer tried and liked, isto produce the lay he asked for and hope the one he tried was stil in its original condi ton. If your work should not suit him then, you can refer to the section of this chapter which tells how to correct various difficulties that customers have with their mouthpieces. Work with your cus- ‘tomer until you have him satisfied. itis important notto have your customer make an immediate deci- sion on the playabily of any lay wile rghtin your shop. ts best tolet him take the mouthpiece home and ty it there orn the job and then come back to you if hes not satisfied. The reason for this is that tis practicaly impossible to reface one mouthpiece to play ‘exactly ike another one. There are so many factors that enter into this thatthe possible combinations would run up into the billions However, if'a man plays for a few hours on a lay thats very lose towhat he likes, hell accustom himself to that lay and lke it per- haps even better than the one he tried previously, How The Cutting Is Done - Where To Cut To Remove the Least Material and Achieve the Desired Results ‘You will realize that in refacing a mouthpiece, all you can do Is. remove material. Theres, of course, limit as to how far you can go along this line. Finally, you will come to a point where the mouth- piece becomes shorter and the tone chamber is made smaller through the removal of too much material, Usually a mouthpiece ‘an be refaced as many as three of four times and still be satisfac- tory forthe average player. There ae, of course, some players who will not allow a mouthpiece to be refaced more than once. ‘Now, ifby referring tothe plot of the mouthpiece to be refaced and the sample plot you find thatthe mouthpiece tobe refaced is quite abi too close and short there are two methods you can use to 51 Clorinet Mouthpiece Refcing ‘open it up the proper amount First see that the table is really flat or ‘make itso, Itis vey important that the table ofthe lay s perfectly flat fit is hollow in the center twill show when taking the frst cut on No. 8/0 pouncing paper even if so small that the 0015" fecler will not enter. itis convex or has a high spot near the center it will be hare to hold the glass direct reading gauge from slipping around. Even ifflat, take at least one cut with the No. 8/0 pouncing paper, and then cut away the material on the curve to the proper mea ‘surement The other method is to apply more pressure on the end of the mouthpiece opposite tothe tip when fattening a table that Is very ‘concave, In doing this, you flatten the table without closing up the mouthpiece further. Any exception to this rule would be ifthe bot- tom end of the lay on the mouthpiece is already rather wide and shows signs of having been cut down quite a bitat that point and the tip has had litle or no cutting done on it Usually one doing this ‘work uses a combination of both systems Ifthe mouthpiece is found to be considerably more open than desired, the table leveling process is reversed. In other words, apply ‘more pressure near, but not at the tip end of the mouthpiece. This will remove more material from the upper end of the table than from the lower. twill atien the table and atthe same time close up the mouthpiece more rapidly than ifyou cut the table down level all the way. In this case, the table must be cut dawn until every feeler {gauge will not quite come up to the mark tis supposed to on the lass direct reading gauge. Selection of Abrasive Many different materials have been used in the manufacture of ‘mouthpieces, including rubber, various metals, glass, and various plastics, such as “Bakelite” etc All ofthese can be cut down on the ‘ream colored pouncing paper. Ifa great amount of cutting must be done on a metal mouthpiece, especially onthe table, itis well to use a very fine emery cloth and finish the cutting down process with pouncing paper. ‘The abrasive papers furnished with the refacing kit are as follows: ‘French emery polishing paper, grades 3/0 and 4/0, © Pouncing paper, 8/0 and 4/0, ‘© Rubber cutting paper, grades 180 and 320. All ofthese papers are marked with their rade numbers and can be reordered from Ferree's as needed. After playing the violin for the cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, Albert Einstein asked, ‘Did | play well?" “You played “ relatively well,” replied Piatigorsky. 52 Mouthpieces Cuffing Down Rubber Mouthpieces Rubber mouthpieces or those made ofthe various plastics, such as “Bakelite” are the easiest mouthpieces to work on. Use 8/0 pouncing paper for cutting down the table and for making the curve as per instructions under thase headings inthis article Irmuch material must be removed, start with the 4/0 and finish withthe 80. The forming of the rails, tip, baffle, etc, is done with files or files covered with the rubber-cutting paper. The chief advantage of us- ing the rubber-cutting paper for finishing the baffle is that this paper does not become clogged with rubber dust asthe other pa~ pers do. Final polishing to form the sides of the rails and baffieis

    You might also like