We're considering a line of ebony alto and tenor mouthpieces. I've  
owned a couple over the years, and thought them interesting. I've had  
no trouble with splitting or excessive softness of the material. I'd  
be interested in any other personal experience with the care, feeding,  
and ownership of wooden saxophone mouthpieces.

I have always like the "earthy" feel of wood mouthpieces when playing them.  Dark and warm feeling even if they have a high baffle.  Probably has to do with a different vibration transmission to the player's skull.
 
I have reface a bunch of wood Lebayles.  Probably because they are lower cost but I have not compared prices.  Half of them held a facing nice and half of them were unstable.  I would face them and check them again after 30 minutes and they would already be crooked.  Like facing a moving target.  
 
I have only done a couple of wood Branchers but they were stable.  Hard to conclude much with only a couple, but I liked them.  
 
I think stabilized wood is the way to go.  The plastic pressure forced into the pores of the wood grain stabilize the dimensions and I think they look cool too.  

From: STEVE GOODSON <saxgourmet@...>
To: MouthpieceWork@yahoogroups.com; SaxophoneRepair@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, July 29, 2011 11:10 AM
Subject: [MouthpieceWork] Ebony (or other wood) mouthpieces


  
We're considering a line of ebony alto and tenor mouthpieces. I've owned a couple over the years, and thought them interesting. I've had no trouble with splitting or excessive softness of the material. I'd be interested in any other personal experience with the care, feeding, and ownership of wooden saxophone mouthpieces.

I've had to repair cracks in several wood mouthpieces.  Mostly due to rapid
humidity changes from air travel.  I also live in NY and the humidity varies
greatly between winter and summer so wood pieces do need care.  I suspect if
you live in an area where the humidity level is constant, warping and cracks
would be less of an issue.

All of the wood piece I've had experience with have been either rosewood or
ebony which are very hard woods relative to almost all other varieties so
I'm not sure what you mean by excessive softness.

They are also naturally oily woods, but I will treat with mineral oil which
will not turn rancid.  I flood the surface until it appears the wood is
saturated and will not absorb any more of the oil and then wipe up excess
surface oil with a cotton cloth.  The piece can be used after 24hrs.

The ebony Brancher pieces appeared to me to be of much higher quality than
the Lebayle pieces.  I've not seen anyone playing on Wanne's resin/wood
pieces so I can't comment.  Personally I'm not a huge fan of wood
mouthpieces but I had the great honor of working on one of the first
rosewood pieces Francois Louis made for Billy Mitchell in the early 1980's
and it was one of the most incredible sounding pieces I've ever heard.

Regards,
matt



On Fri, Jul 29, 2011 at 11:10 AM, STEVE GOODSON <saxgourmet@...> wrote:

> **
>
>
> We're considering a line of ebony alto and tenor mouthpieces. I've owned a
> couple over the years, and thought them interesting. I've had no trouble
> with splitting or excessive softness of the material. I'd be interested in
> any other personal experience with the care, feeding, and ownership of
> wooden saxophone mouthpieces.
> 
>



-- 
Matt
www.matthewvossjazz.com

I'm just curious.

At the end of a reface, I lightly wet the table and rails and put the mpc in contact with a piece of flat glass from the bottom. The water contacts the glass and makes it very clear which rail is higher. I then roll the mpc from table to tip and watch the water. This is especially valuable just at the transition from side rails to tip rail--it is easy to see if the rail are even.

Of course care must be taken that the water (or oil) is evenly distributed on the rails, but one gets a continuous visual idea of the evenness of the rails.

Anybody else tried this?

Toby

  

Bob Ackerman showed me that technique years ago.I found it hard to control the water.

Sent from my iPad

STEVE  GOODSON
Saxophone Guru and Visionary
New Orleans
www.nationofmusic.com



On Jul 30, 2011, at 7:44 AM, kymarto123@... wrote:

> I'm just curious.
> 
> At the end of a reface, I lightly wet the table and rails and put the mpc in contact with a piece of flat glass from the bottom. The water contacts the glass and makes it very clear which rail is higher. I then roll the mpc from table to tip and watch the water. This is especially valuable just at the transition from side rails to tip rail--it is easy to see if the rail are even.
> 
> Of course care must be taken that the water (or oil) is evenly distributed on the rails, but one gets a continuous visual idea of the evenness of the rails.
> 
> Anybody else tried this?
> 
> Toby
> 

I just tried this on a Graftonite piece I'd been working on.  What I found
was that slight variations in the water film thickness changed the reading.
At first blush, there was a very obvious rail assymetry. Adding a little
water changed the side that looked high. Adding a little bit of soap to kill
surface tension and help spread the water film changed it again - now the
mouthpiece rails look even, which I think is correct

At the least this could be useful for a fast diagnostic eyeballing.  I don't
know that I'd trust it at the end of a reface.
However, the glass slab I used has some surface abrasion, this would
probably work better with a virgin slab.

Barry


>> I'm just curious.
>> 
>> At the end of a reface, I lightly wet the table and rails and put the mpc in
>> contact with a piece of flat glass from the bottom. The water contacts the
>> glass and makes it very clear which rail is higher. I then roll the mpc from
>> table to tip and watch the water. This is especially valuable just at the
>> transition from side rails to tip rail--it is easy to see if the rail are
>> even.
>> 
>> Of course care must be taken that the water (or oil) is evenly distributed on
>> the rails, but one gets a continuous visual idea of the evenness of the
>> rails.
>> 
>> Anybody else tried this?
>> 
>> Toby 
>> 
> 
> 

I have used this many times to check the table flatness as well as rail eveness. JZ
On Jul 30, 2011, at 2:44 AM, kymarto123@... wrote:

> I'm just curious.
> 
> At the end of a reface, I lightly wet the table and rails and put the mpc in contact with a piece of flat glass from the bottom. The water contacts the glass and makes it very clear which rail is higher. I then roll the mpc from table to tip and watch the water. This is especially valuable just at the transition from side rails to tip rail--it is easy to see if the rail are even.
> 
> Of course care must be taken that the water (or oil) is evenly distributed on the rails, but one gets a continuous visual idea of the evenness of the rails.
> 
> Anybody else tried this?
> 
> Toby
> 
>