Mouthpiece Misconceptions #1 -- Volume

Stop me if you've heard this one before -- "I need a metal mouthpiece because they're louder!"  "Otto Links all sound stuffy!"  "I need a high baffle piece for rock gigs!"  "I need X mouthpiece to sound like player Y!"

What makes sax mouthpieces work the way they do isn't always straightforward, so misconceptions about them abound, even among professional musicians, heck, even among some mouthpiece makers.  So I thought it would be a good idea if we dispell some of the rumors and get a better understanding about what really works in a sax mouthpiece, and how and why. 

 First, let's deal with the common myth that metal pieces are louder.  The fact is that the material of a mouthpiece has very little to do with its volume.  Yes, material does have an impact on the color of the sound, but not on the volume of it.  To get a bit technical for a moment, what is volume anyway?  Fundamentally it is the amplitude of the sound waves.  But what we percieve is not always what is.  What we percieve as more volume in a musical instrument comes from two thing -- not just larger amplitude of the sound waves, but a preponderance of higher overtones.  More overtones is periceved as more volume. 

What design features of a mouthpiece really do make it louder?  There are several.  So in descending order of importance:

• Higher, longer baffle.  The higher and longer the baffle is, the more of the high frequency vibrations of the thin part of the reed are directed down the saxophone, giving you a louder, and what many call brighter, sound.
• Thin tip rail.  A thinner tip rail allows for more of the thin part of the reed to contribute to the sound.  It has other benefits that we will get into in another article as well.
• Wider window.  A wider window lets more of the thin part of the reed contribute to the sound, giving you more overtones which are percieved as more volume.
  
• Chamber shape also has a smaller influence, with a squarer chamber with straight sidewalls being louder than one with rounded sidewalls.  The other design issues dominate the effects of chamber size and shape, though.  Indeed, Selmer has made dark, quiet, small square chambered classical pieces for years.
  
• Wider tip.  All other things being equal (which they never are, but let's pretend), a wider tip opening will be a bit louder because of the wider amplitude of the vibration of the reed.  This is true, but not nearly as important as the overtones.

So if you want a piece that is louder, look for the following: high baffles, long baffles, wide windows, thin tip, wide tip opening.  Curiously enough, an awful lot more metal mouthpieces are designed like this than hard rubber ones.   But a vintage Otto Link Tonemaster, with a huge round chamber and short baffle, is never going to be as bright as a vintage Berg Larsen ebonite piece, with a high baffle and small square chamber.

Also note that a wider tip opening is well down the list.  It has been argued by many that a wider tip is louder for the obvious reason that more amplitude = more volume.  This is true, but it is unimportant.  The majority of what we percieve as volume is an increase in the number and volume of the overtones.  The first few overtones are nearly the same amplitude at p as they are at ff!  What you get when you put more air through the horn is not bigger sound waves, it is more of them.  This may be counterintuitive at first, but it is the way our ears and minds work.

That's about all I have to say about that.  Next week, I'll talk about why so many large chamber mouthpieces today sound dead/stuffy/weak/lame when there is no earthly reason they have to. 

In the meantime, here is some more if you found that one useful: