I've always had best luck leaving a very small rollover just behind 
the tip. Now I've seen a lot of different things called "rollover" 
but I'm talking about similar to a plain Lawton piece where the 
baffle is straight up to about 1.5mm of the tip and then has a smooth 
rolls over to the tip rail (as opposed to some older Selmers that 
rollover so much it's like having a really thick tip rail).

Lately I've been examining several guardala and ponzol pieces. The 
guardalas appear to be razor straight all the way to the tip rail and 
the ponzols nearly straight with only the faintest hint of a rollover 
as you near the tip.  Both of these mouthpieces play very well, free 
blowing, lots of harmonic content, enough resistance to have easy 
dynamics.

When I make my pieces with a razor straight (as straight as I can 
manage by hand) baffle it becomes free blowing and feels very good 
when blowing hard - but frequently gets a harshness to the sound and 
becomes hard to control when playing softly. The resistance seems to 
be gone for easy dynamics control. It is also much more likely to 
chirp (but the guardala or ponzol don't have the tendency to chirp).

So I'm trying to figure out what I'm missing that guardala and ponzol 
are doing?  My suspicion is that if it is going to be straight, it 
really has to be "straight" and perfectly even from side to side. I 
know the guardala is made by CNC and the baffle is precision - 
working with files I am leaving a slight roll to the baffle (though 
I'm working on techniques to give me a straighter line).

Thanks in advance for any ideas, suggestions, experiences in this 
area.   

>>>When I make my pieces with a razor straight (as straight as I can 
manage by hand) baffle it becomes free blowing and feels very good 
when blowing hard - but frequently gets a harshness to the sound and 
becomes hard to control when playing softly. The resistance seems to 
be gone for easy dynamics control. It is also much more likely to 
chirp (but the guardala or ponzol don't have the tendency to chirp).<<<

This has not been my experiance.  Reducing or eliminating the roll-over
makes the high notes fatter sounding (less harse), resistance change is not
real significant and/or is off-set by improvements I make to the facing
curve.  Chirps less.  If a client complains about chirping and the baffle
already has no roll-over, I'll create a small "lake" (a puddle) near the
tip rail.  



		
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