What is the cause of a mouthpiece to respond in the high register by 
playing an undertone?  i.e. High E comes out 4th space or middle E. My 
thinking is that the facing is too long. The horn is in excellent 
repair. THANKS

I have never heard of this.  
 
I would suggest starting with some basic swap-around trouble shooting.  Try it with different combinations of saxes, reeds and players.  See if the problem always stays with the mouthpiece.
 
I would also plot the facing curve shape to see if there is something unusual in its shape.  I would fix any bumps and flat spots to see if it would fix the problem.
 


      

Is it just this one mouthpiece?  
   
  Alto, tenor, bari?
   
  Is the neck octave pip clear?  have you run a pipe cleaner through it?
   
  Now this is just theory, I don't have much to go with, so I'm pulling this out, uh, of the air... the chamber is a little too big.  That makes the mouthpiece play in tune for most of the instrument, but the instrument wants to go sharp in the palm key range.  So naturally, the player would loosen his embouchure trying to keep those notes in pitch.  That would possibly result in dropping the octave, particularly if the neck octave pip is partly blocked, or if it is too small to begin with.
   
  Experiment with a little "sticky tack" putty in the chamber and see what happens.  After putting in the putty, retune the mouthpiece and see if it still has the same problem.  That will either confirm or eliminate chamber size as the problem.
   
  The instrument may just need the octave pip drilled out slightly.
   
  Paul

Greg Wier <gregwier@...> wrote:
          What is the cause of a mouthpiece to respond in the high register by 
playing an undertone? i.e. High E comes out 4th space or middle E. My 
thinking is that the facing is too long. The horn is in excellent 
repair. THANKS



                           


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>
> Is it just this one mouthpiece?  
>    
>   Alto, tenor, bari?
>    
The harder reed seems to be working.  It is an early Steve Broadus huge 
pickle barrel mouthpiece with a huge chamber. The tone from this 
mouthpiece is exceptionally rich and full, probably because of the 
chamber. The pitch is good but the tendency to drop to an undertone 
came on the attack of the high note. The neck pip is clear and other 
mouthpieces function just fine. So, it seems to be finicky about which 
reeds will work. 

This problem has also occurred on soprano sax for me, Thanks 

 

Very strange, indeed. It seems almost impossible, truth be told, unless the high E hole is somehow blocked. I agree wholeheartedly with Keith--try different mpcs on the horn in question and different horns with the mpc in question as a first step. If it were somehow a mpc issue I would expect the
 same thing to happen with the palm D, Eb and F.

Toby

Keith Bradbury <kwbradbury@...> wrote:                             I have never heard of this.  
  
 I would suggest starting with some basic swap-around trouble shooting.  Try it with different combinations of saxes, reeds and players.  See if the problem always stays with the mouthpiece.
  
 I would also plot the facing curve shape to see if there is something unusual in its shape.  I would fix any bumps and flat spots to see if it would fix the problem.