iDIDJ Australia Didgeridoo Cultural Hub

Here's the first one... does anyone have experience with dental putty for use on mouthpieces? I've heard it works well and might like to try it.

Guan

Hi Guan,

I tried this once actually on the very first instrument I got years ago. As you know my girlfriend is a dentist and having seen me struggling with the largish mouthpiece she just came up with an idea of using dental putty and it was very comfortable..So it surely works well.

Mahir

Hi Mahir,

Thanks for that. It isn't comfort that I'm looking for but energy transference from lips to instrument, an ideal material will behave just like wood and feel like it isn't there. Sawdust and wood glue for example isn't very good, it seems to inhibit energy transference.

Guan

Hi guys,
I've tried various glues and fillers for wood and car body work but find energy is always killed. I suspect anything with an amorphous polymer structure is going to do that. My next experiment is going to be a turned hardwood insert that is malleted into place (my step-father has a wood lathe!).

p.s. this experiment will be on a cheap but solid bloodwood didj I picked up years before I realised Yirdaki existed!

So, you are actually saying that you shouldn't use bees wax or sugarbag wax?
Because I can't think of any other stuff with less energy transfer vibrations than wax

I've used putty, epoxy and wood mouth pieces, and they all transfer the energy
just fine.

Depends on what you're after and how you play. Have you ever tried a Yirdaki with bare wood mouthpiece? The difference bare wood makes to this is substantial, but only if you're going for NEAL style. Then again I have two mago with traditional sugarbag mouthpieces which give an awesome WAL sound. For non-trad styles anything goes as you say! For me the problem comes when trying to reduce the size of a Yirdaki mouthpiece and retain the tone you get with bare wood when striving for NEAL sound - which is what I guessed Guan was after...

The fact is that with sawdust and woodglue it is impossible
to make a sharp edge or a smooth wall. That's why it doesn't
transfer the energy very well.

Furthermore you blow into the bore and not into the wood. It is
all about shaping the first 20mm of the bore with the mouthpiece
you use.

And don't forget that what goes on in your head also influences
your playing

Yep, that clean edge is important but only for certain styles of playing - trad mago can be substantial sugarbag wax! There are so many other variables as you mention that we'd need a serious experiment to disentangle all the factors to get to the root of the genuine effects of acoustic absorption by mouthpiece materials. For sure a one inch square of gaffer tape makes a difference to a snare in my studio, and a single rubber grommet reduces headshock in my racquets. The same principle would certainly apply to a vibrating structure like a didj, but the mouthpiece is also a node, and some polymers like the one in the 1st nut and bridge of my guitars transfers energy better than ebony or bone. I've got the gear to explore this but sadly not the time or enough didjes to perform surgery on

Dave, I agree with you there.

I did a whole lotta of experimentation on my guitars
to get the sound I want, but for some reason I hesitate
do to the same on my 2 yidaki

Much easier to replace a f*cked-up 1st nut!!! )

It is the actual composition of the material that determines whether it is suitable for energy transference from lips to instrument. To me, a really great instrument comes alive and vibrates with energy when played, it has been said before elsewhere that the material a didgeridoo is made from is not important, that all that is required is a chamber for air to vibrate in and therefore the didgeridoo merely acts as a "shell" - well, I don't agree with that view.

Anyway, getting back to topic... sugarbag beeswax works great for mago and mago-type instruments and is my preferred choice for such instruments. Sugarbag also works well for yidaki although I prefer my yidaki to have no wax because the tonguings required for yidaki require somewhat more explosive power and a hard mouthpiece seems to help.

With sawdust and wood glue, it seems a bit too glassy and rather than transmit energy from lips to wood, energy seems to bounce off it. What would be ideal is something that pulls energy into it from the lips and then spreads it to surrounding wood so that the energy travels along the whole length of the didgeridoo unhindered. Maybe material density has something to do with it... if a substance is too dense, it tends to reflect rather than absorb energy. On the other hand, if the material is less dense than the wood the didgeridoo is made from, it might absorb energy well but not pass it on to the surrounding wood.

Guan