Wine glass shaped mouthpieces

[harrisonreed]

I am looking through lots of scan data, and the LI Brass Co schematics available on their site and was wondering how common it is to design a mouthpiece where the rim might be narrower than the cup beneath it. Besides the LI Brass bass mouthpiece for tenor players who double, there are a couple other pieces that appear to expand wider inside the cup than the narrowest point on the rim, and some of the examples surprised me.

Is this a common thing that I just wasn't aware of? It seems like this practice would make the upper register extremely difficult to control.

[LIBrassCo]

I am looking through lots of scan data, and the LI Brass Co schematics available on their site and was wondering how common it is to design a mouthpiece where the rim might be narrower than the cup beneath it. Besides the LI Brass bass mouthpiece for tenor players who double, there are a couple other pieces that appear to expand wider inside the cup than the narrowest point on the rim, and some of the examples surprised me.

Is this a common thing that I just wasn't aware of? It seems like this practice would make the upper register extremely difficult to control.

Fwiw, none of our mouthpieces are wider past the rim.

[ithinknot]

Not that rare, based on years of deeply scientific thumb probe data.

[muschem]

I am looking through lots of scan data, and the LI Brass Co schematics available on their site and was wondering how common it is to design a mouthpiece where the rim might be narrower than the cup beneath it. Besides the LI Brass bass mouthpiece for tenor players who double, there are a couple other pieces that appear to expand wider inside the cup than the narrowest point on the rim, and some of the examples surprised me.

Is this a common thing that I just wasn't aware of? It seems like this practice would make the upper register extremely difficult to control.

Fwiw, none of our mouthpieces are wider past the rim.

That's very interesting. I only have one LI Brass Co bass piece to examine, but using my high-precision thumb check, I'd have guessed that it is in fact wider in the cup than at the rim. Perhaps it first narrows from the rim, and then expands back outward in the mid-cup?

[harrisonreed]

I am looking through lots of scan data, and the LI Brass Co schematics available on their site and was wondering how common it is to design a mouthpiece where the rim might be narrower than the cup beneath it. Besides the LI Brass bass mouthpiece for tenor players who double, there are a couple other pieces that appear to expand wider inside the cup than the narrowest point on the rim, and some of the examples surprised me.

Is this a common thing that I just wasn't aware of? It seems like this practice would make the upper register extremely difficult to control.

Fwiw, none of our mouthpieces are wider past the rim.

This was the schematic that I was referring to:

https://www.librassco.com/store-allprod ... oadwaybass

I don't want to have incorrect info here though, if it's just a trick of the eye due to the outer shape, that would make sense. I don't mean this observation in any sort of negative way -- it had just looked that way to me on the site. Please please correct me if my eyes are just playing tricks on me.

[LIBrassCo]

Fwiw, none of our mouthpieces are wider past the rim.

That's very interesting. I only have one LI Brass Co bass piece to examine, but using my high-precision thumb check, I'd have guessed that it is in fact wider in the cup than at the rim. Perhaps it first narrows from the rim, and then expands back outward in the mid-cup?

Nope. So there's this cool thing that happens with you have a straight cylinder that dumps into a turn, it will always feel like it gets bigger (not the faintest idea why) but no, that doesn't happen on any of our pieces.

[LIBrassCo]

Fwiw, none of our mouthpieces are wider past the rim.

This was the schematic that I was referring to:

https://www.librassco.com/store-allprod ... oadwaybass

I don't want to have incorrect info here though, if it's just a trick of the eye due to the outer shape, that would make sense. I don't mean this observation in any sort of negative way -- it had just looked that way to me on the site. Please please correct me if my eyes are just playing tricks on me.

Totally a trick of the eye. Nope, not negative at all, just same as you, want whatever is out there to be accurate. If you or anyone else has any questions on any of my designs, I'm happy to answer.

[Burgerbob]

That would also be much more difficult (not impossible, of course) to machine, right?

[harrisonreed]

This was the schematic that I was referring to:

https://www.librassco.com/store-allprod ... oadwaybass

I don't want to have incorrect info here though, if it's just a trick of the eye due to the outer shape, that would make sense. I don't mean this observation in any sort of negative way -- it had just looked that way to me on the site. Please please correct me if my eyes are just playing tricks on me.

Totally a trick of the eye. Nope, not negative at all, just same as you, want whatever is out there to be accurate. If you or anyone else has any questions on any of my designs, I'm happy to answer.

Thanks for the correction! So, scratch off LI Brass CO from this list of wine glass shaped mouthpieces.

There are still some other examples of other brands that I have graphs of that do in fact do this wine glass shaped thing, including a Euphonium specific piece. So maybe it is actually pretty uncommon?

That would also be much more difficult (not impossible, of course) to machine, right?

It should be pretty straight forward with a boring bar, which are already often used to make mouthpiece cups on CNC machines. You could go wider than the rim by as much as the cutter relief is long (or by the radius of the throat if you only use one boring bar).

[LIBrassCo]

That would also be much more difficult (not impossible, of course) to machine, right?

Depends how crazy you want to go. If it was just a little it's possible you could do it with a boring bar. Otherwise, oh ya that's not fun to do. Ideally I'd make it a screw rim to do that, much easier that way

[Kbiggs]

It looks like the outer diameter of the cup is larger than the inner diameter of the rim, is that what you’re thinking of Harrison? I believe it’s a trompe-l'œil.

[harrisonreed]

I think it came down to the pixelation of the model making it look like it was curving one way, but I measured it with a screen grab. The two circumferences shown, rim and middle cup, appear to be the same. It's like a cylinder!

My eyes straight up tricked me. Heck, maybe I shoulda been brave enough to do what is shown on the LI Brass CO schematic on my doublers bass mouthpiece design (if you consider a really deep 2G a doublers piece...). I'm still not 100% satisfied with mine. I haven't been able to test any LI Brass CO designs but I've heard them and they sound great.

[LIBrassCo]

I think it came down to the pixelation of the model making it look like it was curving one way, but I measured it with a screen grab. The two circumferences shown, rim and middle cup, appear to be the same. It's like a cylinder!

My eyes straight up tricked me. Heck, maybe I shoulda been brave enough to do what is shown on the LI Brass CO schematic on my doublers bass mouthpiece design (if you consider a really deep 2G a doublers piece...). I'm still not 100% satisfied with mine. I haven't been able to test any LI Brass CO designs but I've heard them and they sound great.

I've done some even more interesting designs lately in this area, and have some outstanding results. There's more than one way to make it work for sure.