Hi. I'm a new guy. I tried to read as much as I could on this site so as not to ask stupid 
questions. So here goes ... I'm looking for mouthpiece 'blanks' - metal ones in particular. I 
think they may really exist! Can anybody direct me somewhere? Thanks for all the great info.

Sal

Phil Barone has occassionally sold metal blanks on eBay.  There had been a
few unfinished Guardalas sold there too.  I have a few LAW blanks.  See the
photos area on the Yahoo site.  Other than that, metal blanks are not
advertised for sale.  Runyon may pull a few off their line and sell them.

But if you just want some for practice, any inexpensive MP will do.  eBay
has a number of Asian made mouthpieces listed that are poorly faced
mouthpieces with gold plating.  These can be good blanks.  Some consider
modern metal Link STMs good blanks. 





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I would concure with Keith and practice on an old mouthpiece if you 
are new to mouthpiece work.  It is much easier to modify a mouthpiece 
than to start from scratch. There are a lot of so-so mouthpieces that 
could be improved. I would also try a hard rubber or plastic 
mouthpiece first before jumping into a metal mouthpiece.  Hard rubber 
is really easy to work and usually sound really good when you are 
done facing it.

I've picked up many no name, lesser known, and vintage HR mouthpieces 
on ebay.  They make great "blanks."  I've got some really nice 
vintage hard rubber pieces for $10. Those Chinese metal mouthpieces 
on ebay make pretty good "blanks."  I made an offer to one of the 
sellers and got 2 tenor Selmer-like metal mouthpieces for $50. They 
were brass plated with this funky gold stuff that flaked off. After 
facing the mouthpiece, I sanded the gold stuff off and replated with 
silver. It plays quite well for me and it is one of the only 
mouthpieces that plays in tune on one of my hard-to-play-in-tune 
vintage C Melody horns.

Willis Dair

--- In MouthpieceWork@yahoogroups.com, "sal_rosselli" 
<sal_rosselli@...> wrote:
>
> Hi. I'm a new guy. I tried to read as much as I could on this site 
so as not to ask stupid 
> questions. So here goes ... I'm looking for mouthpiece 'blanks' - 
metal ones in particular. I 
> think they may really exist! Can anybody direct me somewhere? 
Thanks for all the great info.
> 
> Sal
>