TromboneChat

Morning all,

Does anybody know if the cup depths in the Bach mouthpiece manual (https://www.bachbrass.com/application/f ... 89_web.pdf) are consistent?

So, for example: the 3, 6.5A, 6.5AL, 9 and 11 are all described as 'medium deep'. Does that mean they're all actually the same depth? Or is it just an abitrary description that's specific to each size, like the 'teutonic sound', etc?

While I haven't seen an 11, 9 or 3 in the flesh, I would imagine these no letter mouthpieces are slightly shallower than the 6.5A(L) pieces. Especially the 11, which the 11C variant is considered a shallow version of the 6.5AL (see the other recent thread about those pieces).

I have a 7C, 6.5AL and 5, and the cup depth of the 5 is in between the other two. Definitely medium as the manual says IIRC. A 5GS (considered medium deep in the manual and which I also own) is deeper than a 6.5A(L), and a 5G is deeper still.

It's all arbitrary, I feel. I never really followed the manual with the sole exception of rim size and contour, and only narrowed my search once I settled on the 5 series. With Bach, YMWV.

The 3 and 6.5AL are definitely not the same depth.

As with all things Bach, you have to play them to really find the differences. The catalog is basically worse than useless.

Burgerbob wrote: ↑Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:36 am The 3 and 6.5AL are definitely not the same depth.

As with all things Bach, you have to play them to really find the differences. The catalog is basically worse than useless.

True in so many ways.

The plain numbers are deeper than the 6-1/2 variants, which are deeper than the C cups.

Yes......PLAY the Bachs to determine if they work. I had given up on Bach mouthpieces for years for an assortment of reasons....mostly because there were so many differences in mouthpieces stamped with the same size.

About a year ago, I was trying to find a mouthpiece for a quirky alto that I never felt comfortable playing. I was just going through dozens of mouthpieces to see if I could get a lucky fit. Lo and Behold! One of my Bach 7Cs (I own 5 or 6) worked brilliantly on the alto. None of the other 7Cs worked, but that particular 7C had the magic. I had to reshape the rim so it was comfortable, but I am very with that instrument/mouthpiece pairing. I am glad that I tried a mouthpiece that I had thought had no chance of working.

Thanks everybody - much appreciated

My wildly uninformed guess would be that the descriptions are relative to the cup depth you might expect for a mouthpiece in that cup diameter - eg you would typically expect a 5-ish sized mouthpiece to be deeper than an 11-ish sized mouthpiece, so even a "medium deep" 11-ish piece may be shallower than a "medium" 5-ish piece