Aug 6th, 2023
Not hallucinating - while the first Chicago Benge mouthpieces have somewhat murky history, the next major round was commissioned after King bought them in 1972. Benge began making pieces based on Bach designs of the era, continuing until the factory moved to Eastlake, Ohio in 1983. I've heard conflicting info about whether or not Lausmann in Nauheim, W Germany started making Benge pieces after that - an employee at the time said that they briefly tried making Benge mouthpieces at Eastlake, but they had to shift resources to other parts manufacturing, so they began outsourcing "at some point around 1990"...
Other than a few original designs, most Benge pieces were still Bach-inspired, and Lausmann mostly produces Bach-type designs. They occasionally make others, such as the Blessing 14A4a and 4B, but rarely do Schilke/Yamaha and Denis Wick clones come around otherwise - except this:
