Selmer S-80 Opened to .090 for Jazz

This is an interesting project I did for Nick Marcum.
Nick is interested in sounding like Travis Rainey who when asked, told him he was playing on a Selmer C* that was opened up. Here I will show you the steps I used to open Nicks S-80 from .060 mm to .090 mm.

This is the plain S-80 at .060 tip opening:

First the baffle is reduced and the tip is completely removed. The tip is also reduced and shaped to a reed.

The rails are reduced and the body is sanded:

Clean with steel wool and water. Smooth the new baffle.



Take out the tip again. Shape the baffle. At this point the mouthpiece is starting to show it's personality. The tip gets bigger on the right but the facing needs to get longer on the right. Not to mention the baffle seems a little low on the right. There are a lot of forces working against each other in this mouthpiece. Dealing with these conflicting forces has an impact on how far I decide to open the MPC. I need to keep fighting the forces till the MPC starts doing what I want it to do.




This is the finished mouthpiece.

This is a Berg Larsen I purchased at the local music store. It had a big chip in the right rail. The baffle was too low on the right side and the facing was too long on the left side. It was also very open and the facing did not give a reading at the fulcrum station. It has taken a lot of work on the diamond stone. Now it is an 8 with a solid reading at the fulcrum. I see this problem a lot on metal mouthpieces. The Level Air a few posts down had the same problem. I have not play tested this one yet, but I think it will be interesting. It may be a little too bright for blending with the sax section.

Beechler Alto MPC

This is a Beechler Alto MPC. It has quite a history. It was originally a 7, but was sent back to the factory to be reduced to a 6. It looks like they just took it down by flattening the table, but did not lengthen the facing. The client wanted it opened back up to a 7. The rails were pretty far out of whack; therefore, I had to take it to an 8. It plays great. Low notes speak well and it is not too bright. Because it had so much prior work, I had to remove quite a bit of baffle work. If you look closely, you can see where I put a ridge down the middle of the baffle. This was done with a Dremil tool. I have found the technique to work quite well on stainless steel mouthpieces. For metal mouthpieces, I like to keep the baffle scratched and rough. (like you see on Dave Guardala's refacing work. I know Dave is in trouble now. Despite the problems, I am influenced by his work. You can be sure that I will do the work you request and return your mouthpiece promptly.