GB2310754A

GB2310754A - Mouthpiece for a woodwind instrument has a rubber insert

Info

Publication number: GB2310754A
Application number: GB9703937A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Ernst Schreiber
Original assignee: HOLZBLASINSTRUMENTE ERZEUGUNG
Current assignee: HOLZBLASINSTRUMENTE ERZEUGUNG
Priority date: 1996-02-27
Filing date: 1997-02-26
Publication date: 1997-09-03
Anticipated expiration: 2017-02-26
Also published as: DE19607371A1; GB9703937D0; FR2745412A1; GB2310754B

Description

2310754 Mouthpiece for a woodwind instrument and method of manufacture

thereof The invention relates to a mouthpiece for woodwind instruments, especially clarinets and saxophones. The invention also relates to a method for the manufacture of the mouthpiece. In one form of known mouthpiece, a mouthpiece body has in its leading end region a cutout with a tapered opening and a part known as a roof or bite, which inside the leading end region form a sound chamber, and the mouthpiece body has in its rear end region a rear bore which terminates in a push-fit neck.

Known mouthpieces for woodwind instruments consist as a whole of hard rubber, or of plastics material, especially a thermoplastic or thermosetting plastics 'material. Next to the individual constructional details, the materials play a significant part in the tone colour of a woodwind instrument.

A mouthpiece injection moulded from a plastics material is better and more accurately made compared with a mouthpiece of hard rubber, thus ensuring that the sound is the same with each mouthpiece. The thermoplastic or thermosetting material does not, however, let as many harmonic ranges resonate as with hard rubber. The damping factor and the sound quality obtained with hard rubber mouthpieces is therefore better than with mouthpieces of plastics material. Since the hard rubber mouthpieces have to be worked manually, however, they are not only substantially more expensive to make than mouthpieces of plastics material, but there are differ ences in sound from mouthpiece to mouthpiece, so that the tonal quality is brighter or deeper.

It is therefore an aim of the present invention to produce a mouthpiece of the kind mentioned in the introduction which has the advantages of a mouthpiece of plastics material and those of a mouthpiece of hard rubber, that is to say, that the sound of different mouthpieces is always substantially the same combined with a sound quality known from hard rubber mouthpieces.

The invention provides a mouthpiece for a woodwind instrument, having a mouthpiece body with a leading end region and a rear end region, the rear end region comprising a rear bore, wherein the mouthpiece body consists at least in part of plastics material and the mouthpiece further comprises a hard rubber insert in the rear end region.

The said rear end region preferably comprises a push-fit neck, the rear bore terminating in said push-fit neck.

Because the mouthpiece body consists of plastics material, it can be manufactured identically for all mouthpieces, which necessarily results in an identical sound. But by lining the resonance chamber with hard rubber, such a mouthpiece also has the advantages of a hard rubber nouthpiece.

According to a preferred form of construction of the invention, the hard rubber insert extends over the entire length of the rear bore and pushfit neck. The entire main resonance chamber is therefore lined, so that a sound quality that corresponds to that of mouthpieces made purely of hard rubber is obtained.

According to a preferred practical form of the inventive concept, the hard rubber insert according to the invention can be arranged in a recess in the mouthpiece body. In development of that inventive concept, at least one circumferential ridge is advantageously provided in the recess in the mouthpiece body. By means of this ridge the hard rubber insert can be fixed in the mouthpiece body.

According to the invention, it has proved to be advantageous to manufacture the mouthpiece body from polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA).

The invention further provides a mouthpiece for a woodwind instrument, especially a clarinet or saxophone, having a mouthpiece body which in its leading end region has a cutout with a V-opening and a part known as a roof or bite, which inside the leading end region form a sound chamber, and the mouthpiece body having in its rear end region a rear bore which terminates in a push-fit neck, and the mouthpiece body consisting substantially of plastics material, especially a thermoplastic or thermosetting plastics material, wherein a hard rubber insert is arranged in the rear end region of the mouthpiece body.

A method according to the invention for manufacturing a mouthpiece for woodwind instruments of the above-described kind provides for the hard rubber insert to be inserted in an injection mould for a mouthpiece body and for a thermoplastic or thermo-setting plastics material, especially polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) to be injected around it, and for the rear bore and the push-fit neck to be finished subsequently.

The individual constructional details and the type of the subsequent finishing is dependent on the type and the intended purpose of the mouthpieces. The combination according to the invention of a mouthpiece body of thermoplastic or thermosetting material and a hard rubber insert can be used in mouthpieces of all pitch types both with clarinets and saxophones.

One embodiment of the invention will now be described in detail, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawing.

All the features described and/or illustrated pictorially, alone or in any combination, form the subject matter of the invention, regardless of how they are summarized in the claims or how the claims are related.

The single Figure shows a longitudinal section through a mouthpiece according to the invention, the reed, ligature and means for fixing the mouthpiece to the instrument being omitted.

The mouthpiece 1 illustrated in the Figure is intended in particular for woodwind instruments such as clarinets and saxophones. The mouthpiece 1 comprises a mouthpiece body 2 which has a cutout 4 in its leading end region 3. The cutout 4, which includes the entire opening in the mouthpiece body 2, ends at the frontmost end of the end region 3 in a tapered opening 5. Opposite the cutout 4 and adjoining the tapered opening 5, a section 6 referred to as a roof or bite is provided in the leading end region 3 of the mouthpiece body 2. Inside the leading end region 3 of the mouthpiece body 2 a sound chamber 7 is formed, the geometry of which is partly responsible for the tone colour of the mouthpiece. Different roof forms produce different tone colours.

The leading end region 3 of the mouthpiece body 2 is separated by a socalled window 8 from the rear region 9 of the mouthpiece body 2. The rear end region 9 is manufactured in one piece with the leading end region 3 and has a support face 10 for a reed, not illustrated.

The reed is secured by means of a ligature, likewise not illustrated, to the mouthpiece body 2.

The rear end region 9 consists of a rear bore 11 and a push-fit neck 12, which has an undercut 13 for enabling the mouthpiece to be connected to the woodwind instrument, not illustrated, in particular a clarinet or a saxophone. For that purpose the push-fit neck 12 has an undercut 13. In addition, on the circumferential surface of the push-fit neck 12 there is a channel 14 for - 6 a cork ring or similar means with which the mouthpiece 1 is fixed to the woodwind instrument.

On the inside of the rear bore 11 and the push-fit neck 12 there is a continuous recess 15 for receiving a hard rubber insert 16. The hard rubber insert 16 is a turned part of hard rubber which is held securely by means of several circumferential ridges 17 that are formed in the recess 15 in the rear end region 9. The hard rubber insert 14 extends over the entire length of the rear bore 11 and the push-fit neck 12, which form the main resonance chamber 18 of the mouthpiece 1. The resonance chamber of the mouthpiece is thus completely lined with hard rubber, so the damping factor and thus the tonal quality of the mouthpiece are the same as in a mouthpiece made purely of hard rubber.

The mouthpiece 1 is manufactured as follows: The hard rubber insert 16 manufactured as a turned part is inserted in an injection mould, not illustrated, for a specific mouthpiece body 2. The hard rubber insert 16 then has a thermoplastic or thermosetting plastics material, especially polymethyl methacrylate (PMKA) injected around it, whereby the mouthpiece body 2 is formed. The rear bore 11 and the adjoining push-fit neck 12 must then be finished. This subsequent finishing operation concerns only the hard rubber turned part in the rear end region, however, and therefore does not alter the geometry of the actual mouthpiece body 2. The volume of the sound chamber and of the resonance chamber therefore does not change either, so that the sound of the mouthpiece does not differ from the sound of similarly manufactured mouthpieces.

The mouthpieces are not only easy but also inexpensive to manufacture, because for that purpose only a simple injection-moulded part and a hard rubber turned part are needed. The tone of the mouthpiece is nevertheless just as good as that of a hard rubber mouthpiece that is considerably more complicated and thus more expensive to manufacture, whilst at the same time having advantages of mouthpieces of thermoplastic or thermosetting material, namely, their identical sound chambers and the identical tones coming therefrom.

Claims

1. A mouthpiece for a woodwind instrument, having a mouthpiece body with a leading end region and a rear end region, the rear end region comprising a rear bore, wherein the mouthpiece body consists at least in part of plastics material and the mouthpiece further comprises a hard rubber insert in the rear end region.

2. A mouthpiece according to claim 1, wherein the rear end region comprises a push-fit neck, the rear bore terminating in said push-fit neck.

3. A mouthpiece according to claim 2, wherein the hard rubber insert extends over the entire length of the rear bore and the push-fit neck.

4. A mouthpiece according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the hard rubber insert is arranged in a recess in the mouthpiece body.

5. A mouthpiece according to claim 4, wherein at least one circumferential ridge is formed in the recess in the mouthpiece body.

6. A mouthpiece according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the plastics material is a thermoplastic or thermosetting plastics material.

7. A mouthpiece according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the mouthpiece body consists of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) with a hard rubber insert.

8. A mouthpiece according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein at least the rear end region of the mouthpiece body is of plastics material.

9. A mouthpiece for a woodwind instrument, especially a clarinet or saxophone, having a mouthpiece body which in its leading end region has a cutout with a V-opening and a part known as a roof or bite, which inside the leading end region form a sound chamber, and the mouthpiece body having in its rear end region a rear bore which terminates in a push-fit neck, and the mouthpiece body consisting substantially of plastics material, especially a thermoplastic or thermosetting plastics material, wherein a hard rubber insert is arranged incthe rear end region of the mouthpiece body.

10. A mouthpiece substantially as described herein with reference to and as illustrated by the drawing.

11. A method for the manufacture of a mouthpiece for woodwind instruments according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the rubber insert is placed in an injection mould for a mouthpiece body and has a thermoplastic or thermosetting plastics material, especially polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) injected around it, and that thereafter the rear bore and the push-fit neck are finished.

12. A method of manufacturing a mouthpiece substantially as described herein.

13. A hard rubber insert for use in a mouthpiece according to any one of claims 1 to 10.