Hey folks,

       How does silver and gold plating effect the  sound and 
playability of a mouthpiece? How about the mouthpiece material 
itself? (solid silver or gold vs. plated or unplated brass or steel?)

Thanks for any info you can give me,
Dan

Plating does not affect the tone or playability of the mouthpiece, nor 
does it affect the instrument.  I have heard people say that silver 
makes a sax sound bright, gold gives a warm tone.  Well, gold is only a 
very thin layer on top of silver plating.  Does the thin layer of gold 
cancel the brightness of the silver?  Blind tests say no.

 

Back to the mouthpiece, from metal to plastic, there is sometimes a 
difference in tone, but you find very few mouthpieces of exactly the 
same chamber and wall thickness to truly make an A/B comparison.  The 
only models that come to mind where the plastic version is the same as 
the metal is in the Runyon line.  The Quantum Metal is shaped exactly 
like the Quantum Custom (made of Delrin, which vibates similarly to rod 
rubber).  The very thin walls of the beak of the delrin version vibrate 
quite noticeably, and the tone and response differ.  The Runyon 
Smoothbore Metal, and its similar plastic version, the Runyon XL, have 
thicker sidewalls and beak, and there is less difference, though there 
is still some.

 

Plastic or hard rubber vibrate more easily than metal, and contribute 
more to the tone than does metal in the mouthpiece.

 

Chamber, baffle, and other factors affect the tone much, much more.  I 
like to do this demonstration in clinics.  I hold up a Selmer Metal 
classical model tenor mouthpiece (like Hemke plays on tenor), a black 
Runyon Bionix, and a few other mouthpieces, and have the students guess 
as to the tone quality, suitability of each mouthpiece for concert band, 
rock and roll, etc.

 

They always are quite surprised at the dark, smooth tone of the Selmer 
metal mouthpiece (which would certainly get kids kicked out of band 
before they ever produced the first note, just on appearance alone), and 
the brilliant Rock & Roll razz of the Bionix.

 

Material of the mouthpiece, and plating, have the least affect on tone.

 

Paul

 

 

 



danieloestreicher wrote:

> Hey folks,
>
>        How does silver and gold plating effect the  sound and
> playability of a mouthpiece? How about the mouthpiece material
> itself? (solid silver or gold vs. plated or unplated brass or steel?)
>
> Thanks for any info you can give me,
> Dan
>
>
>
> Got a Mouthpiece Work question?  Send it to MouthpieceWork@yahoogroups.com
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In my opinion, plating is too thin to have any effect on tone quality.

Besides the Runyons Paul mentioned, there are very few MPs that come in
different materials but are dimensionally similar.  Dukoff has (or had)
some clear and black plastic models that are similar to their Silverites. 
But the Silverites vary so much dimensionally in the chamber and facing, it
is nearly impossible to conclude much about the material effect.  To me it
is mostly a player comfort/interface thing.  

The lower density materials should vibrate more from the reed slaping
against them.  This has some effect on the sound but a lot of effect on the
player via vibrations throught his skull.

I've played RIAs on bari in Silver plated brass, HR and Aluminum.  The
Aluminum one was a little edgier, but the chamber had some shape
differences that could contribute to it.

Bergs come in several materials, but like Dukoffs, they vary a lot
dimensionally so that you can try a bunch of them in the same design marked
with the same facing and have more sound and response variation that if you
compared different materials.

Many players think of metal as louder and brighter.  That is because the
typical metal mouthpiece also has a high baffle design.  The typical HR
mouthpiece does not.  My opinion is that metal (brass and stainless
steel)is a little darker than HR, plastic or wood. 

But I think it really comes down to what material and shape feels right to
you in your mouth.  Then you can dial in the baffle, chamber design, facing
and reed.


	
		
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I am starting to believe that mouthpiece material doesn't make a lot of
difference in the tone that is heard or recorded but because of the
vibration of different materials the player perceives that it makes a huge
difference.  This is the same conclusion I have drawn regarding material and
plating used on horns.  I think that these factors are very important to the
player in that if they don't have the right feel they think the horn or
mouthpiece isn't that good.  Basically, it's all mental :-)

Ed  

-----Original Message-----
From: Keith Bradbury [mailto:kwbradbury@...] 
Sent: Sunday, June 13, 2004 11:52 AM
To: MouthpieceWork@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [MouthpieceWork] Mouthpiece plating

In my opinion, plating is too thin to have any effect on tone quality.

Besides the Runyons Paul mentioned, there are very few MPs that come in
different materials but are dimensionally similar.  Dukoff has (or had)
some clear and black plastic models that are similar to their Silverites. 
But the Silverites vary so much dimensionally in the chamber and facing, it
is nearly impossible to conclude much about the material effect.  To me it
is mostly a player comfort/interface thing.  

The lower density materials should vibrate more from the reed slaping
against them.  This has some effect on the sound but a lot of effect on the
player via vibrations throught his skull.

I've played RIAs on bari in Silver plated brass, HR and Aluminum.  The
Aluminum one was a little edgier, but the chamber had some shape
differences that could contribute to it.

Bergs come in several materials, but like Dukoffs, they vary a lot
dimensionally so that you can try a bunch of them in the same design marked
with the same facing and have more sound and response variation that if you
compared different materials.

Many players think of metal as louder and brighter.  That is because the
typical metal mouthpiece also has a high baffle design.  The typical HR
mouthpiece does not.  My opinion is that metal (brass and stainless
steel)is a little darker than HR, plastic or wood. 

But I think it really comes down to what material and shape feels right to
you in your mouth.  Then you can dial in the baffle, chamber design, facing
and reed.


	
		
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Do you Yahoo!?
Friends.  Fun.  Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger.
http://messenger.yahoo.com/ 



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