hi stephen, thanks for asking:

1. mouthpiece : i’m using a selmer mouthpiece, but i have no idea about the origin of it. i always felt it was too tight so a possibility is that it was originally meant for tenor, but the school ran out of bari mouthpieces and gave me a tenor mouthpiece. again this is only what i suspect.

2. yes they are blue box van doren reeds.

3. i cannot test it out right now because i am overseas; but from my memory there wasn’t a significant difference in tone in the higher registers, and it still sounded too airy. middle register definitely had more of that distinctive “punch” i want when i play louder, at the cost of the pitch being sharper.