Here is an Email exchange on this spreadsheet.  We have not had much discussion about clarinet facing curves in the past.  We have had a lot of clarinet players/refacers join recently.  So maybe some of them have some comments too.


Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2011 07:17:57 -0800
From: kwbradbury@...
Subject: Clarinet Curve Finder.xls
To: andrewhdonaldson@...

Thank you for sharing this file with the group.  I have moved it to the Clarinet File Section.
 
I was looking it over and have a few observations/questions. 
 
1. It looks like it is for a glass gage that reads in mm instead of mm*2.
 
2. It looks like the target curve is made up of a parabolic curve and a straight section near the tip.  
 
3. The straightness factor determines the tangent point where the curves meet.
 
4. What are the pros/cons of using this type of curve?
 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

RE: Clarinet Curve Finder.xls
From: Andrew Donaldson <andrewhdonaldson@...> Add to Contacts 
To: kwbradbury@...  

Hi Keith,

Thanks for your interest.  To answer your questions:

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. I started off with radial curves for clarinet, but found they did not response evenly across the range of the instrument, especially crossing the break.  I noticed a lot of published facing schedules and mouthpieces I measured had different forms of curve.  After some experimentation I came up with this curve.  I think the straight section near the tip corresponds with the different waveform of the clarinet sound, which has a strong "square-wave" component compared to the saxophone sound.  The straightness factor can be varied, but I found a value of around 0.8 seems to give good results.

Perhaps others will find this helpful.  But if it is wrong and someone has a better way, I would be happy to be corrected.

Regards,
Andrew

I am not a wildly experienced refacer but at first look I have to say I find that basic facing geometry pleasant to play.  For whatever reason the slight straighandt portion counter-intuitively makes response easier and more even.  I find tho that the square wave component can be aggressive especially with softer reeds so I have taken to using a leger reed, 600 to 1000 grit paper between tip and reed...no more than 1 or 2 mm in...applying slight vacuum ..slight movement of paper to put a slight dish on the tip.  I am able to maintain the basic feel and response while softening the "buzzy" quality this way.



--- In MouthpieceWork@yahoogroups.com, "MojoBari" <kwbradbury@...> wrote:
>
> Here is an Email exchange on this spreadsheet.  We have not had much discussion about clarinet facing curves in the past.  We have had a lot of clarinet players/refacers join recently.  So maybe some of them have some comments too.
> 
> 
> Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2011 07:17:57 -0800
> From: kwbradbury@...
> Subject: Clarinet Curve Finder.xls
> To: andrewhdonaldson@...
> 
> Thank you for sharing this file with the group.  I have moved it to the Clarinet File Section.
>  
> I was looking it over and have a few observations/questions. 
>  
> 1. It looks like it is for a glass gage that reads in mm instead of mm*2.
>  
> 2. It looks like the target curve is made up of a parabolic curve and a straight section near the tip.  
>  
> 3. The straightness factor determines the tangent point where the curves meet.
>  
> 4. What are the pros/cons of using this type of curve?
>  
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
> 
> RE: Clarinet Curve Finder.xls
> From: Andrew Donaldson <andrewhdonaldson@...> Add to Contacts 
> To: kwbradbury@...  
> 
> Hi Keith,
> 
> Thanks for your interest.  To answer your questions:
> 
> 1. Yes
> 2. Yes
> 3. Yes
> 4. I started off with radial curves for clarinet, but found they did not response evenly across the range of the instrument, especially crossing the break.  I noticed a lot of published facing schedules and mouthpieces I measured had different forms of curve.  After some experimentation I came up with this curve.  I think the straight section near the tip corresponds with the different waveform of the clarinet sound, which has a strong "square-wave" component compared to the saxophone sound.  The straightness factor can be varied, but I found a value of around 0.8 seems to give good results.
> 
> Perhaps others will find this helpful.  But if it is wrong and someone has a better way, I would be happy to be corrected.
> 
> Regards,
> Andrew
>