Introducing the RM-20...the Most Inefficient Morgan Clarinet Mouthpiece Ever Made!!!!
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Introducing the Morgan RM-20 Bb Clarinet Mouthpiece…the most inefficient Morgan Clarinet Mouthpiece ever made!!! Now that’s a sales pitch!
Since the beginning of the Morgan Mouthpiece Company in the early 1980s, we have never offered a clarinet mouthpiece with 1.20mm opening. There was always a gap between 1.15mm and 1.25mm. The reason is Ralph Morgan insisted that 1.20mm was an inefficient opening. I never fully understood his reasoning, and never really questioned him about it. It was something he discovered during his research. It has something to do with the reed not vibrating as efficiently on a 1.20mm facing curve as it does on curves for other openings.
According to Ralph, the same issue exists on a tenor saxophone mouthpiece with a .105 opening. Ralph never offered a tenor saxophone mouthpiece with a .105 opening. It was not because he couldn’t make one, he just refused to make a mouthpiece which he insisted was not as perfect as his other offerings. Interestingly enough, I met another saxophone mouthpiece maker in the early 2000's who echoed the same findings. He also performed a lot of acoustical research and came to the same conclusion...that a .105 opening on tenor is an inefficient opening or a dead spot in the facing curves.
Of course, the general marketplace has a different view. An opening of .105 on tenor is possibly the most popular opening on tenor. On clarinet, a 1.19mm / 1.20mm is also a VERY popular opening. My conclusion is while science may prove these openings to be inefficient, that “inefficiency" is not perceptible to the player and the comfort for the player on these very popular openings is a more significant factor.
We started producing .105 tenor saxophone openings in 2008 and they are great mouthpieces. We now offer a Morgan Classical Bb Clarinet Mouthpiece in a 1.20mm opening and it is also a great mouthpiece.
Sorry about this Ralph. It may be “inefficient”, but it’s a fantastic mouthpiece.
I hope someday to find Ralph’s research on the subject to find out exactly why these two openings are “inefficient” and if I do, I will be happy to post his findings. In the meantime, grab one of these great “inefficient” mouthpieces and have fun playing.
2 comments
Hey Ron, Sorry for the slow response here…still getting used to using the blogs. Our clarinet openings are: 1.06mm, 1.10mm, 1.15mm, 1.20mm, 1.25mm, 1.28mm, 1.35mm and 1.45mm. A “medium close” opening would probably be our 1.15mm which is a very popular opening for the Morgan Mouthpieces.
As for our blanks, we make and use our own. Many think we use Zinner or Babbitt blanks, but we do not. We use our own rubber formula in our own molds to make our blanks. We do not sell our blanks to other companies, so the Morgan Company is the only one that uses Morgan blanks. You can see a bit more about how a Morgan Mouthpiece is made in our blog: Evolution of a Morgan Mouthpiece. In a future blog, we will post more information and pictures of how the mouthpieces are made. Thanks, DaveDo you have one that is a Medium Close? Do you use Zinner blanks?