Johannes Gerber Saxophone Mouthpieces

Here is a quick overview of the effort that goes into each Johannes Gerber mouthpiece...

Every Johannes Gerber saxophone mouthpiece starts out as a solid round or hexagonal bar of very high quality brass or bronze. First, the shank is cut on a manual lathe, then the facing is rough cut on a machine Johannes designed and built. The facing machine takes time to set up, therefore 5 to 10 blanks are normally produced simultaneously up to this point.
Next the body is shaped in a special fixture. After that, the beak is shaped on a special machine. With the facing roughly created, the rails and window are marked out by hand. Next the chamber is machined on a manual milling machine to closely match the markings. Now the bore is drilled precisely on a lathe.
With the basic blank finished, the tedious hand finishing starts. First, the table and facing are smoothed and adjusted to very close tolerances to match the specifications. Now the tip area is shaped to fit 3 different reed brands as closely as possible. The throat area is cut and smoothed with a high speed flexible shaft machine (by hand). Next, the baffle is cut down by filing to a desirable height - this step brings the tip opening to 98% of its final measurement. Play testing begins here.
Now the cleaning starts, with different grits of carbide paper wrapped around files, and silicon impregnated disks, the inside of the chamber is polished until all marks are gone. The biteplate is cut from a sheet and glued into the pocket. Now the biteplate gets filed down until it perfectly matches the beak. While the mouthpiece is held in a special fixture, the whole body gets sanded with strips of carbide paper until 1200 grit, all by hand, very carefully not to touch the perfect facing and rails - until every scratch mark is removed.
The inside gets polished with a liquid abrasive and woolen buff on a flex shaft machine. Utmost care is taken not to touch the fine tip rail and facing, only achievable by a very steady hand. Once the inside is shining, the outside is polished with a jewelry buffing machine. At this stage surgical gloves are worn not to contaminate the brass with oils from bare hands. When meticulously polished, the mouthpiece is engraved by hand and then washed in a warm soap bath.
Finally, the mouthpiece is washed in several degreasing and cleaning solutions before gold plated in a hardened 24K gold solution, which is very hard wearing.
At this moment the above processes take approximately 5 working days per mouthpiece. It takes an additional 1 day to make the ligature, which is also completely handmade from bronze. When everything is completed, the mouthpiece and ligature is packed into a very attractive satin-finished tin and mailed.