Hello!

For the past two years I had been playing on a DE setup (XT N102/H/9), but I recently got my hands on a Bach Mount Vernon 3G. It plays like a dream! In comparison to my Doug Elliott it plays much darker and warmer, and allows me to have a larger range of colour to work with.

Thinking of going the route of using the Bach all the time with the exception of high 1st tenor playing (brahms, berlioz, ravel)- that's when I would use a Greg Black 5GD or 5G-4G (still looking for one!)

I mostly prefer deep cups, is the 3G deeper than my DE H cup? I'm trying to figure out why I like this mouthpiece so much more. Any ideas?

K

From a chart on doug's site, it looks like the 3g is slightly deeper than the H. That doesn't really take into account your specific mouthpiece, the chart just goes from published specs, which doug admits aren't really standardized and don't necessarily mean much.

If you like it, you like it! Don't worry about specs in that case. Especially with a MT Vernon, which could be completely different than a modern one.

When I was in college I had a 3G that was pretty shallow, but I didn't play it much because I didn't like the rim shape. I've also seen really deep ones, and in between. I don't know what depth they're supposed to be.

Interesting. It definitely feels deeper when I feel with my finger, than the H cup. I must have a deeper one.

There seems have been two versions of the 3G that pop up in the Mt Vernon days also Elkhart days.... deep and shallow. The deep is around the same depth as a 2G whilst the shallow is not even as deep as a 5G. No idea why. I have a pre-war Bach 3 large shank that was the only large shank model produced by Bach before the war (wait for the flood of contradictions... that's the fun) and this has the regular 3G rim with a MUCH shallower cup.... like a massive version of a7C ! It may be that some people still wanted a mouthpiece like that so Bach made some at regular intervals. I have a deep cup Mt Vernon 3G in the collection. Over the years I have come across players who, with hard work, have played 2G and 3G pieces on tenor and still managed to sound like a tenors it's possible if that's what you want to do.

Chris