I've been having problems getting my high E and F on soprano - it seems to
me that it used to be easier, but I'm not really sure, as other things have
changed (for example Fibracell changed the cut of their soprano reeds).

In any case, last night I gauged my mouthpiece - a Ponzol HR 65 - and found
some assymmetry in the rails, mostly between 5 to 15 mm from the tip.

I never measured this mouthpiece when it was new (about 3 years ago), so I
have no way of knowing whether the hard rubber warped slightly, or whether
the piece came this way.

How stable are the newer hard rubber mouthpieces - does anyone know?

I also had previously found the table to be slightly concave. In fact, a
somewhat less than slight concavity spanning the entire width of the table.
Here again, I suspected warpage, and wrote to Peter Ponzol. Concerning this,
he wrote me that it was part of the design, because:

> When a reed gets wet it tends to swell,  if it doesn't have someplace to go
> it will push away from the table.

Of course, for a Fibracell reed, this is unnecessary. But how much of a
difference does this make for mouthpieces and cane reeds?

And could this have been dimensional instability also?

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Barry Levine
To: MouthpieceWork@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, March 13, 2006 1:34 AM
Subject: Re: [MouthpieceWork] Re: Hard Rubber Dimensional Stability?


I've been having problems getting my high E and F on soprano - it seems to
me that it used to be easier, but I'm not really sure, as other things have
changed (for example Fibracell changed the cut of their soprano reeds).

In any case, last night I gauged my mouthpiece - a Ponzol HR 65 - and found
some assymmetry in the rails, mostly between 5 to 15 mm from the tip.

I never measured this mouthpiece when it was new (about 3 years ago), so I
have no way of knowing whether the hard rubber warped slightly, or whether
the piece came this way.

How stable are the newer hard rubber mouthpieces - does anyone know?

I also had previously found the table to be slightly concave. In fact, a
somewhat less than slight concavity spanning the entire width of the table.
Here again, I suspected warpage, and wrote to Peter Ponzol. Concerning this,
he wrote me that it was part of the design, because:

> When a reed gets wet it tends to swell,  if it doesn't have someplace to 
> go
> it will push away from the table.

Of course, for a Fibracell reed, this is unnecessary. But how much of a
difference does this make for mouthpieces and cane reeds?

And could this have been dimensional instability also?

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

AFAIK hard rubber is quite stable dimensionally. I have a 50-60 year old 
Berg Larsen rubber sop piece that plays beautifully, as well as an old MC 
Gregory that's got to be around 50 that has rails and table straight and 
true.

I can't comment on the asymmetry you found in your piece, but tables are 
often deliberately made concave for the reasons that Ponzol mentions. 
Basically as long as the reed seals flat across the table at the window the 
rest doesn't matter. A slight concavity ensures that any warpage in the butt 
end of the reed will not end up pushing the important part of the reed just 
behind the window away from the table.

Toby