hello to all
I am refacing a tenor hard rubber Ottolink 6*. It was unpayable because of its warped table. Now I have straightened the table (thaks to Keith, Paul and Toby for the posts about this argument) and it plays well in all registers, but it sounds very "reedy". the curve starts at 52 (Erick Brand)- measured with 0,002 inches gauge - and is very close with a circular arc (thanks Keith for you spreadsheet); tip opening is 101.
1) Is curve too long?
2) If curve is too long, what is the best way to shorten facing lenght?
3) I appreciate any general suggest about how lenght of the facing affects the sound of muothpiece.
thanks in advance
ciao a tutti
Filippo

I tend to like long-ish facing curves.  But I also like Fibracell reeds and
I think they may lend themselves to longer facings.

52 is fairly long.  I would use it on bigger tips, say .105-.120+" if the
player says they are looking for lush low notes and they are not having
problems with getting high notes to speak.

But a reedy or buzzy sound is usually due to using a soft reed.  2s and
softer, and some 2.5s.  What reed are you using?  The long facing may allow
you to try a harder reed.  A closer tip opening would help too.

The second cause of buzzy, reedy, edgy sound is a significant flat section
in the facing curve.  It can be in the middle or the tip of the facing
curve.  The reed has a tendency to slap against the rails like a beaver's
tail on water (you may need to look that up if you do not have beavers in
your country).  That is one of the reasons I plot all my facing curves. 
Flat spot show up on a graph but are not possible to see in a column of
numbers.



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Filippo:

 

The facing is a little long, more like a bari sax length.  To shorten a 
facing you must remove material from the table.  Then there will be a 
sharp angle at the break.  You must actually go to short, and then round 
off the angle and blend back into the facing curve.  For tenor you want 
a facing length of 22 mm - 24 mm. For alto 20 mm - 22 mm.  Soprano 17 
mm- 20 mm.  Baritone sax, 25 mm - 26 mm.

 

Paul

filippo bucci wrote:

> hello to all
> I am refacing a tenor hard rubber Ottolink 6*. It was unpayable 
> because of its warped table. Now I have straightened the table (thaks 
> to Keith, Paul and Toby for the posts about this argument) and it 
> plays well in all registers, but it sounds very "reedy". the curve 
> starts at 52 (Erick Brand)- measured with 0,002 inches gauge - and is 
> very close with a circular arc (thanks Keith for you spreadsheet); tip 
> opening is 101.
> 1) Is curve too long?
> 2) If curve is too long, what is the best way to shorten facing lenght?
> 3) I appreciate any general suggest about how lenght of the facing 
> affects the sound of muothpiece.
> thanks in advance
> ciao a tutti
> Filippo
>
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thanks to Keith and Paul: you are great!
Filippo

Some food for thought.  The premise is that the reed shape and cut 
should tell us what facing length can be used with it.  You can use 
shorter facings, but you are not utilizing all the reed's capacity 
for making sound.  You can try longer facings, but you will get to 
the point where the reed is so thick it will not bend and air will 
leak under it.

As a starting point, I looked at the length of the reed from the tip 
to the end of the vamp.  The facing length should be much less than 
this.  Comparing the recommended facing lengths vs a few of the reeds 
i have on hand, I find that the middle-of-the-road facing lengths to 
be 55%-60% of the tip-to-vamp length. The smaller saxes lean towards 
the 60% figure.

Another way to look at it is to take the tip-to-vamp length and 
subtract the width of the reed from it.  This is just another way of 
staying away from the thick part of the vamp.  This suggestion works 
decent for sop and alto, but indicates longer facing lengths than 
what is typically used for tenor and bari.

But this may also indicate that we are not fully utilizing the reed 
length available on the bigger saxes.  I think we start to reach the 
point where our own mouths are the limiting factor, not the reed 
length.  If my porportional analysis was pure and correct, we would 
all need proportionally larger mouths to play the bigger saxes.  
Embochure changes adapts us to a point, then we cheat a little on 
facing length.  I would imagine that bass and contrabass saxes use 
even less of their respective reed lengths.

I added a new REED_FL spreadsheet in the Files - Methods area that 
compares my reed measurements to the range of facing lengths I have 
measured in the past year or so.  I also include the recommended 
ranges that Paul recently posted.  Its just food for thought.