I have recently bought myself a new toy and my first single reed instrument- a xaphoon- and am wondering about mouth pieces.

WHY are sax mouthpieces the other way up from clarinet, are there any other significant differences, how are the reeds different... and why...

The other way up? What do you mean?

Both are played the same way up... Difference between sax and clarinet mouthpieces...sax mouthpieces are all ebonite/plastic/metal and are put over cork....clarinet mouthpieces have cork on them and are put in the barrel

There are also important differences in external size, and in internal shape and size.

nick

Oh dear- now I engage brain I know full well both clarinet (except some historical ones) and sax have the reed on the bottom but somehow I still had the 'fact' tucked away that one had the reed on top to come out and embarrass me!

What are the differences in internal shape and size?

Thanks!

there are still diffrences between the 2 instrument mouthpiece, clarinet mouthpiece abit swallow, while saxaphone is flatter

Oh dear- now I engage brain I know full well both clarinet (except some historical ones) and sax have the reed on the bottom but somehow I still had the 'fact' tucked away that one had the reed on top to come out and embarrass me!

What are the differences in internal shape and size?

Thanks!
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Obviously, differences between the different sizes of saxophone mpc and clarinet - but I have the impression that sax mpcs also tend to vary in internal dimensions far more than clt - for instance, often having a pronounced baffle, and a variety of quite different throat shapes (square, horseshoe etc). To get a sense of the difference, you would probably have to compare a Bb clt and a middling soprano sax mpc - maybe a selmer S80 C* or D.

I don;t pretend to be an expert on mpcs - but you can get some sense of design differences on any one of a myriad websites - I think Ed Pillingers site has a guide to mpc variation, but I may be wrong.

Nick