Does anybody have facing curves for soprano they could share? In 
particular, I want the "proper" curve for a Dukoff D8, if there is 
such a thing. In attempts to correct the defects in my D8, I think 
I've made the facing too long and I'm reluctant to do anything else 
until I know what a good curve looks like. If you have curves for 
something similar to a Dukoff, that would be great. I haven't had the 
opportunity to measure or even try other soprano pieces except a few 
that are more "middle of the road".

I have no less than 4 Dukoffs for alto that all have had some defect 
of some sort. One of them was pretty easy to fix and plays better for 
me than any alto mouthpiece I've had. It then was easy to fix the 
others and get the optimum facing based on measurements from the good 
one.

Thanks,
Jon

I could work out a recommended curve for you.  What set of feelers are you using?

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> I could work out a recommended curve for you.
> What set of feelers are you using?

Wow. That would be great, but I was hoping that you didn't have to go 
out of your way to measure something.

I recently misplaced my good set of feelers that my wife bought for 
me and so I only have the cheapie Craftsman 36-feeler set. If you 
don't think that these will work, let me know. I am using the 
standard 0.5mm unit glass gage.

Thanks in advance for your help!
Jon

Your feeler set probably only goes to .035".  I have not found a source for
larger sizes.  I taped together some of the smaller sizes I was not usng to
get the larger sizes I needed.  I had to combine 2 cheapo feeler sets to
get my working guages.  This is not the best arrangement but it has been
good enough to get good facing results.  I keep putting off getting an
improved set due to my backlog.

I routinely check the thickness of my stacked feelers with my set of
digital calipers.  I also check my calipers against a precision guage
block.

The increments I use are in the archives somewhere.  I use a set of 10
feelers from .0015" to ~.095".  I could use a couple more larger sizes for
the big tenor and bari pieces.

For soprano sax, you only need to go up to .065" or so.

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Well, if the Craftman feeler set is good enough for you, its 
certainly good enough for me!

Thanks,
Jon

Actually, your Crafstman set is better than what I use...

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See the new file I uploaded.

Sop Facing Curves.xls in:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MouthpieceWork/files/Methods/

Thanks Keith!

Very gracious of you to work this up. I've been trying to get a short 
facing like your 75/34 example but I wasn't using your old 
spreadsheet correctly. I kept having a major flat spot at by the tip. 
Your new spreadsheet sure cleared things up for me.

After about an hour of work using your chart I ended up with 
something more like 72/40, a bit more conservative. It plays like I 
remember my old Dukoff did many years ago: it requires some work to 
control it even with a soft reed but has the edge I want without 
being "over the top". It's playing very well with the older design 
Fibracell Med Soft reed.

Getting the tip rail right is still giving me a bit of grief. It 
looks a lot like the typical Dukoff rail that isn't well defined. 
There's just a little more buzz/fuzz in the sound than I'm used to. 
I've used a small knife to scrape behind the rail but the soft metal 
is too easy to dig into. Silveite is not the easiest stuff to work 
on. I'll keep trying.

Thanks again for your help!
Jon Lloyd

It may help to sharpen the knife if it is dull.  It does kind of create
ridges when you scrape a Dukoff.  A small piece of 320 grit sandpaper will
smooth it out.  

Its a little tough to direct the sanding in the small soprano piece.  I
wrap the paper around a plastic stick for spreading glue that has a 1/8"
wide flat end.

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