I've just taken an old Conn Eagle Alto piece from 55 thou tip to 80 thou tip. Fortunately there was enough material to do this. I have given the piece a small roll over being carefull not to leave the roll over to high. The piece is still basically all chamber with hugely rounded side walls.
I have never worked on one of these before.
This piece is to be used with a 1920's Conn.

On a Mk6 alto the piece plays well over the horn even in to the harmonics. Great bottom end and not a bad sound but is extremely very dull. 

Is this normal? 

If I took the roll over down to basically nothing , would it liven the piece up? 

Cheers to all.

Ross

I would suggest that it needs more baffle, not less.  Opening a tip makes the sound darker so making a rool-over out of the roof material is a good thing to start with.  Try a gentle arched baffle made out of temporary putty.  You could fill in the sides too, but then it will be like other straight-walled mouthpieces.  So do this just for the trial experience to see how significant the change is.



      

Thanks for the reply Keith.
Are these pieces generally like this?
This one had no baffle in it to start with.

Ross McIntyre
saxman.com.au

To a certain extent that's just the sound of these pieces.  The chamber is so large (even larger now that you've opened it a lot) and so steep you'll never get a modern (i.e. post 1930s) jazz sound out of it without adding material.  The baffle is too short, and for the chamber width the floor is too steep.  

--- In MouthpieceWork@yahoogroups.com, "charvel50" <mk6sax@...> wrote:
>
> I've just taken an old Conn Eagle Alto piece from 55 thou tip to 80 thou tip. Fortunately there was enough material to do this. I have given the piece a small roll over being carefull not to leave the roll over to high. The piece is still basically all chamber with hugely rounded side walls.
> I have never worked on one of these before.
> This piece is to be used with a 1920's Conn.
> 
> On a Mk6 alto the piece plays well over the horn even in to the harmonics. Great bottom end and not a bad sound but is extremely very dull. 
> 
> Is this normal? 
> 
> If I took the roll over down to basically nothing , would it liven the piece up? 
> 
> Cheers to all.
> 
> Ross
>

Thanks for the comments, Morgan.
It is also what I have found. I just needed to know that they are like that.
Thanks.
Ross

Yes, they were designed for a different era and sound concept than what is needed for today's music.
 
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________________________________
From: Ross and Helen McIntyre <mk6sax@...>
To: MouthpieceWork@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Mon, December 7, 2009 9:07:38 PM
Subject: Re: [MouthpieceWork] Conn Eagle Alto Mouthpiece

  
Thanks for the reply Keith.
Are these pieces generally like this?
This one had no baffle in it to start with.
 
Ross McIntyre
saxman.com.au