Alto Saxophone mouthpiece

On this page I present my 3D-Printed alto saxophone mouthpiece made of a standard polylactic acid filament.


Alongside my passion for architecture, I also like to immerse myself in hobbies such as music, where I play bass guitar in a local band and saxophone in our school orchestra. One of my side projects this year was re-designing my saxophone mouthpiece which connects to my embrasure.

The type of mouthpiece that one can use on a saxophone was a crucial impact on the sound which is produced consequentially impacting the tone, resonance, timbre and other harmonic aspects.I made many changes when modelling a unique saxophone mouthpiece with CAD these included: Having a wider tip opening, this provides a broader sound with a greater airflow as more wind travels through the body. Lastly, I also made changes to the ‘baffle’ of the mouthpiece adding a higher baffle meant that air could travel quicker through the mouthpiece creating greater projection as a result. The only problem with this is the ‘thinner’ tone which can be exhibited as technically less air is traveling through the sax despite its quicker speed of airflow.

The saxophone pictures mouthpice beside in order from left to right present my original Yamaha 4C mouthpiece, some CAD renders and finally my printed model on the bottom right

This photo below presents one of our concerts where our orchestra (left) played at the Queens Platinum Jubilee

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