Clarinet Mouthpiece Reproduction

sketchfab

Charles "Chuck" H. Davis, a renowned Senior Fellow and Adjunct Professor at Informatics, boasts an extraordinary clarinet mouthpiece, meticulously handcrafted by a colleague in the 1930s. This one-of-a-kind mouthpiece consistently produces a distinctive sound that sets it apart from standard designs, prompting fellow clarinet players to take notice. Seeking to replicate this unique piece using cutting-edge technology, Professor Davis turned to modern 3D scanning and printing methods. In November 2014, Brian McCarthy of The Indiana Institute for Biomedical Imaging Sciences obtained a high-resolution MicroCT scan of the mouthpiece. Building on this data, AVL extracted precise 3D printable geometry, which was then refined by Shelley Spicuzza at the Herron Think-It-Make-It-Lab to produce multiple versions of the mouthpiece through 3D printing.