Custom Mouthpieces

I use my own custom 3d-printed mouthpieces these days. Why?

1) I find that the standard mouthpieces, that come with my Hohner and Hammond melodicas, restrict airflow too much. This limits my ability to play chords at the volume I’d like. It also may accentuate unwanted volume differences between low and high notes. My custom mouthpieces are far less restrictive of airflow.

2) I find that a less restrictive mouthpiece reduces fatigue, especially after playing lots of chords!

3) When I am using the circular breathing technique (which I do often), my jaw is moving up and down and the standard mouthpiece falls out. I designed mine with a large flange to catch behind my front teeth.

4) I tend to move around a lot when playing, and I frequently yank the tube out of my mouth by accident. The flange on my mouthpieces prevents this from happening- I can even hang the entire melodica from my teeth if I’m feeling silly enough to do that.

5) the right-angle mouthpiece gives me control over the orientation of the tube.

These geometries are designed to be 3D printed. I’m happy to share the .STL files for these. If you’re interested, please leave me a comment below.

This video demonstrates the difference in airflow between a standard mouthpiece, and one of mine.