Is it a closely guarded secret, or can someone please tell me how to
obtain easy altissimo notes by designing this into a CLARINET mouthpiece.

I have no problem with this on MPC's with open lays I.E. .050" + tips
- apart from a sore lip ! but have been trying to obtain this response
from an experimental .045/630. Starting with a curve, then flattening
at .25" like the HS**. If anything, this seemed to make matters worse.
Does lengthening or shortening the lay alter this problem?
I have not tried a flip tip but presume makers don't normally resort
to such extreme measures and still obtain the desired results.

My reference point Is Artie Shaw, whom I beleive used a Selmer 'S'
which is .45/669. He may have used something else but his ability to
bend notes Glissando and give a full tone and flexible response in the
upper registers was at least partly due to his MPC characteristics I
would think.
I suspect it may be tip magic. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Eddie.

I've played around with clarinet facings a bit.  Pure circular curves
don't seem to work that well, being rather resistant above middle B. 
A shape that works well for me is to start with a circular curve but
then reduce down to a slightly flatter curve from about halfway along
the total facing length to the tip.

Another geometry which seems to be used by some makers (and also for
soprano sax) is a parabolic curve for the first 2/3 of the lay and
then a straight bit for the last 1/3 to the tip, with the two segments
meeting each other at the "normal", ie opposite to tangent.

For me, facings longer than 21mm (absolute length) tend to make the
altissimo more difficult because the pitch goes flat, leading to
excessive pinching of the reed to bring up to pitch.  Also, larger tip
openings like 45 (1.2mm) tend to cause pitch problems.  In this
regard, clarinet is a bit differnt from sax, I think.

Some clarinet curves seem to make a feature of a flat segment in the
middle of the curve, but I have not experiemented with this.

Regards,
Andrew

--- In MouthpieceWork@yahoogroups.com, "Edward McLean" <ewmclean@...>
wrote:
>
> Is it a closely guarded secret, or can someone please tell me how to
> obtain easy altissimo notes by designing this into a CLARINET
mouthpiece.
> 
> I have no problem with this on MPC's with open lays I.E. .050" + tips
> - apart from a sore lip ! but have been trying to obtain this response
> from an experimental .045/630. Starting with a curve, then flattening
> at .25" like the HS**. If anything, this seemed to make matters worse.
> Does lengthening or shortening the lay alter this problem?
> I have not tried a flip tip but presume makers don't normally resort
> to such extreme measures and still obtain the desired results.
> 
> My reference point Is Artie Shaw, whom I beleive used a Selmer 'S'
> which is .45/669. He may have used something else but his ability to
> bend notes Glissando and give a full tone and flexible response in the
> upper registers was at least partly due to his MPC characteristics I
> would think.
> I suspect it may be tip magic. Any suggestions would be much
appreciated.
> Eddie.
>

--- In MouthpieceWork@yahoogroups.com, "andrewhdonaldson"
<andrewhdonaldson@...> wrote:
>
> I've played around with clarinet facings a bit.  Pure circular curves
> don't seem to work that well, being rather resistant above middle B. 
> A shape that works well for me is to start with a circular curve but
> then reduce down to a slightly flatter curve from about halfway along
> the total facing length to the tip.
> 
> Another geometry which seems to be used by some makers (and also for
> soprano sax) is a parabolic curve for the first 2/3 of the lay and
> then a straight bit for the last 1/3 to the tip, with the two segments
> meeting each other at the "normal", ie opposite to tangent.
> 
> For me, facings longer than 21mm (absolute length) tend to make the
> altissimo more difficult because the pitch goes flat, leading to
> excessive pinching of the reed to bring up to pitch.  Also, larger tip
> openings like 45 (1.2mm) tend to cause pitch problems.  In this
> regard, clarinet is a bit differnt from sax, I think.
> 
> Some clarinet curves seem to make a feature of a flat segment in the
> middle of the curve, but I have not experiemented with this.
> 
> Regards,
> Andrew
> 
> --- In MouthpieceWork@yahoogroups.com, "Edward McLean" <ewmclean@>
> wrote:
> >
> > Is it a closely guarded secret, or can someone please tell me how to
> > obtain easy altissimo notes by designing this into a CLARINET
> mouthpiece.
> > 
> > I have no problem with this on MPC's with open lays I.E. .050" + tips
> > - apart from a sore lip ! but have been trying to obtain this response
> > from an experimental .045/630. Starting with a curve, then flattening
> > at .25" like the HS**. If anything, this seemed to make matters worse.
> > Does lengthening or shortening the lay alter this problem?
> > I have not tried a flip tip but presume makers don't normally resort
> > to such extreme measures and still obtain the desired results.
> > 
> > My reference point Is Artie Shaw, whom I beleive used a Selmer 'S'
> > which is .45/669. He may have used something else but his ability to
> > bend notes Glissando and give a full tone and flexible response in the
> > upper registers was at least partly due to his MPC characteristics I
> > would think.
> > I suspect it may be tip magic. Any suggestions would be much
> appreciated.
> > Eddie.
> >
>
Thanks for the comments Andrew.
I think that using extra short lays may be contributing to the reed's
lack of response when vibrating on the highest notes.
This is maybe just as bad as having a lay which is too long.
The reeds refuse to co-operate at the high end.
I'm still looking for a lay tweak which might compensate for this
shortcoming.
The old Brilhart 7* 58/594 must have worked .
Anybody got the lay measurements ?            Eddie