[Alan Brinton]

It’s 6″ long, beezer. I have received mine and am not yet quite sure what to make of it. The question is how to attach it to the melodica, and this will have to be addressed for each different melodica mouthpiece receptacle. What you get is this:

The flat, oblong end is a nice alternative mouthpiece, comfortable — though each player will have to decide how well it works for his or her style of play and for manipulating sounds. The round end doesn’t fit inside a Yamaha, Suzuki, or Hohner mouthpiece receptacle. So a transitional fitting or length of tubing will be required. At this point, I’d advise waiting to see what Lowboy and others find they can do with it.

But how are you thinking of shortening one of your tubes for the Hammond 44? Do you mean cutting the long tube? I’d be reluctant to do this because of its unusual black color. Experimenting with some white tube from another melodica might be better — or with some other tubing, surgical perhaps. Are you fancying a shorter version of the gooseneck tube or something like the long hard mouthpiece of the old Hohner Piano 36?

I think we need to find someone who will try designing and manufacturing alternative plastic mouthpieces, which doesn’t seem like a big challenge. I’m sure most of us have ideas, for example a longer, curved variant on that standard Suzuki mouthpiece with the small round opening, which of course would also work on a Hammond. Or a shorter version of the Hammond/Suzuki gooseneck.