Correct Mouthpiece Size

[Samit2011]

This question is probably best answered by Doug Elliot but I had a question around finding the right rim size. For a few years I played on a Griego Alessi 4D. I wasn’t convinced with the mouthpiece but it was good enough given my situation. About a year ago I switched to a Griego artist 3C and like the brilliance and the wider rim more but still had similar struggles as my 4D in terms of width of sound and articulation clearness. About a week ago I got my hands on a Griego artist 1C. I’ve been playing that since and I am finally able to achieve the sound in my head, my articulations cleared up and for the most part my range was unimpacted. The issues I’m having with this larger rim is that I’m having issues shifting cleanly into the higher register (high Bb or C sounds great when I start off on the note but when I need to work up there it’s a bit more difficult. My question to the hive mind is, should I work with the larger mouthpiece more to try and work on that shift or should I just move back down a size? Thanks in advance!

[harrisonreed]

The 1C and 3C are nearly the same mouthpiece, FWIW.

You might just want to use the 3 but let your chops be a little more spread in the cup. The 1 is probably forcing you to spread out.

If you want a bigger sound, maybe the the Greg Black NY 3 with the .295 throat could help. That will also probably force you to spread out a little bit.