Paul,
Your post on materials was very appreciated! It tied all the ends 
together for me.  I have caught snatches of this thread in past entries, 
including the mention of thinning the external contours. Like you, I 
dislike the bulbous qualities of some plastic/rubber pieces.  Toward 
this end, I took a Rico Royal B-5  blank from ebay  (a lot of MP for 
little $ IMHO) and tried to shape it to fit in with "the drawer" of 
metal tenor Brilhart levelaires and Berg Larsens.  It looks pretty 
funny, as only the tip half is contoured so far, but the "close your 
eyes" test has been passed, and it feels right.  Because of work, I have 
very little time these days, but plan to putter with this more at a 
later date.
On another note, I did have one of the group's tenor MP blanks reworked 
by a mouthpiece refinisher, Dave Jary, in New York. He reported that it 
may not be his best piece, but that it is very playable, though there 
was a lot of time involved in finishing it.  Looking forward to playing 
it when I have time to drag out the horns again is one of the little 
joys that keeps me sane when work is so busy.  And, as a bonus, Dave is 
very knowledgable, a heck of a nice guy, and has a way of not making us 
mere mortals feel "talked down to" as he gently educates us. Merry 
Christmas! Jim