Completing the AMMA

To complete the AMMA I have been personally working on the table, window, rails, and baffle because they have, by far, the largest impact on the sound. While the shape of the chamber greatly affects the sound as well (such as having rounded inner side walls and a large chamber) slight variations in the chamber are not audible. Any variation along the baffle and tip rail will be readily heard though. This is why I put so much attention there.

The AMMA is made by machining in three stages:

• Each half is individually machined, lengthwise.
  
• These two halves are soldered together in a special heat-regulated oven for even heat dissipation.
  
• The single piece is finish machined.
  

This is a lot of machine time as we have three machining steps, and a soldering stage. We also bead-blast the interior of the mouthpiece, however some solder and/or a solder line is often still visible within the chamber of the mouthpiece.

The process for preparing each AMMA mouthpiece:

• An intricate machining and soldering process is performed to create the machined mouthpiece blank.
  
• I check the facing, baffle, and rails of the mouthpiece.
  
• The mouthpiece is polished.
  
• I reface the facing, baffle, window, rails, etc. along with chamfering the side rails.
  
• I test play the mouthpiece.
  
• I make any further adjustments I feel is necessary.
  
• I color-buff the mouthpiece to remove my handling and finger print marks.
  
• The mouthpiece is plated in either gold or silver.
  
• I check the mouthpiece curve to ensure sure it is correct from plating variations.
  
• I test play the mouthpiece.
  
• I make any final (light) final adjustments.
  
• I do a final test play on the mouthpiece. If the mouthpiece is not satisfactory I repeat this entire process. Those that pass my final test play are ready for sale.