First thing to say is I have been playing alto 2 years 8 months and soprano, a year and a half. My alto is a Yamaha YAS-480 and the Yamaha 4C mouthpiece came with it. Like many "serious" beginners, I got the itch to try other mouthpieces and see what they were like. The first was a Vandoren V16 6M. It seemed great in the store, then very hard to play at home. I eventually had it refaced to reduce the opening, but that's another story. I tried at least one other before seeing a bunch of...
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Under Construction
D'Addario finally released a tenor mouthpiece.
After the excellent alto a couple of years ago (reviewed here), I was very curious about it. D'Addario UK kindly sent four mouthpiece for cafemembers to try.
Thanks again Tom
Note:
D'Addario uses a different numbering system.
D'Addario/thous/Otto Link:
6/100/7
7/105/7*
8/110/8
9/115/8*
This gave me the rare opportunity of testing the same model in four different facing; recently I started experimenting with smaller tips, away from my usual 9...
Ding Dong PPT calling.
My new Tenor PPT 9* just touched down at the front door.
Ripped apart the packaging.
Frown :doh: Came in a lovely cardboard tube but the mouthpiece was wrapped in a plastic bag :old:
An old crunched up piece of newspaper would have done the job just as well. ;)
Stop moanin' Spike !
Rooted about in my drawer for a lig, and an old reed, slapped the whole caboodle on the horn.
My goodness me this thing is a monstrous work of Amy Zing art.
Need to get my neck cork redone...
I received today a 6 and a 7 facing of these new alto mouthpieces.
They are CNC machined from a hard rubber bar, and according to the company, they don't require any hand finishing.
The first look confirms this. the design is very neat and precise on both pieces. Medium chamber and straight baffle. Some undercutting under the siderails. Medium tiprail (not too thin or too wide).
Very well made.
They look exactly as a hard rubber mouthpiece should look: like a mouthpiece. Standard elegant...
A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to review some mouthpieces from Absolute.
Their ST model had a ligature that was a piece of art, beautifully engineered and innovative.
After some pressure, Absolute decided to make the ligatures available for standard size"ebonite" mouthpieces.
As we all know from the internet, ligatures have three main functions:
secure the reed
look cool
convince cafesaxophone members to wear a baby-blue mask
London Meet 012
Personally I am very sensitive...
I was sent the Rico Graftonite C5 alto mouthpiece as part of a promotion on tamingthesaxophone.com. I had bought a copy of The Midnight Playalongs, and the two arrived together. So I loaded up the backings CD and began a comparison with my usual alto mouthpiece, a Vandoren A35.
Equipment Used
According to the mouthpiece comparison chart at http://www.jodyjazz.com/facings.altosax.html, the opening of the Rico C5 and Vandoren A35 are similar, so I used the same Vandoren Blue Box 2.5 reed on...
:)
I've been playing two years now, on a variety of alto saxophones and mouthpieces and just received the Onyxite PPT Alto MP in 6** (or 7M) tip opening for my birthday today.
Typically, I started two years ago with the MP which came with my Jupiter 565-567, then a Yamaha 4C which was OK, then tried a Selmer C* which I didn't get on with, nor a Runyon 22 6, and latterly a Bari Esprit II which is very good for a beginner, keeping the notes in tune with its fairly narrow tip opening.
I also...
Navarro Mouthpieces have been around for a while now, but not so common in the UK, where they only arrived recently.
Thanks to the exceptional Richard Hamer at http://www.woodwindsalesandrepairs.com/ I had the opportunity of trying some, together with good old @David Roach the gasfeeder.
I tried three (marble) ebonite pieces: a Maestra 7*, a Bebop Special 7*, a Bopboy 8 (actually measuring.107 =7*)
The Maestra is in the Otto link Tradition, with a baffle comparable to the now celebrated...
My well known preference for Pillinger mouthpiece could be described as an "open marriage". I still like to have some different affairs, like my pretty Absolute STs.
In particular, it is a well known fact that tenor players are suckers for mouthpieces. It is probably due to the huge palette of sounds that a tenor can produce.
I recently had the opportunity to try some mouthpieces not normally available in European shops. On another forum a lot of people rave about them.
Dick Hamer, at...
Today I took delivery of my new Jean Marc soprano sax ligature, and have just been giving it a play with my usual set up of BW Bronze Curvie, Berg Larsen 70/1 ebonite and Marca 2.5 reeds. Having focussed a lot on soprano over the last few weeks, and preferring the sound of my Selmer 1 screw metal lig over my Vandoren Masters metal lig, I was quite amazed at the sound resulting from the JM metal ligature.
The sound was immediately more 3 dimensional, unbelievably tuneful and had a...
A PPT 9* and three other mouthpieces. A layman's view.
It was a logical purchase or so I keep telling myself. What made me specify a 9* from Pete when only a lazy, late beginner/semi-intermediate player? Everyone was advising a Yamaha 4 when the supplied plastic beginner’s mouthpiece was replaced on a whim. As the only Yamaha in stock was a 6, guess what temporally cured the GAS? So from the start I’m two tips up on the recommended size. Next was a Java T75 and meeting Griff who wanted a go...
I recently acquired a metal PPT 8* mouthpiece from Pete, not for any other reason than I wanted to try something new and different to my Sakshama made Guardala MB2, the main requirements I were looking for were serious amounts of volume and projection and brightness to the tone (so I can be heard over that bloody trumpet!) Pete told me from the off that it wouldn't be as bright as the Guardala, which worried me ever so slightly but I needn't have!
Anyway my first impression's when I got it...
Many reviews are written by experienced musicians, and it is great to have an individual with such a wealth of experience describing the particular attributes of the mouthpiece or saxophone in question. I on the other hand am not a hugely experienced saxophone player, and I don’t have a long list of equipment I’ve tried or owned to draw upon to help identity the strengths and weaknesses of a particular mouthpiece for example. So you might be wondering why I should be writing this review...
Tom suggested that I do a review of the Windcraft baritone mouthpiece since the poor unfortunate chap does not possess a baritone sax. So I have done and here it is.
Its full name is Windcraft Baritone Sax Mouthpiece Ebonite Streamline – 5M and it's available from Dawkes Music at £59. They say this about it:
So it seemed reasonable to compare it with a Meyer and the PPT that I use for my usual honking. Here's a pic of alongside my Meyer (at top):
And here are the respective chambers...
This will be a short review for the Tenor sax PPT onyxite 7*. If you'd like to hear more just ask and I can post more, I'd just like to get something down as I keep forgetig to do this review.
The PPT is a pretty nice mouthpiece and it plays very well. I got adjusted to it in no time. There was one problem though: it took some sort of knock during shipping and there was a small chip in the middle of the facing. I didn't want to play it because I thought it would be unusable. I thought i...
For a while I've been focussing on Soprano Mouthpiece recommendations, and have been aware that there are not that many choices at the cheaper end of the market.
I have previously used a Rico Graftonite B7 which I have found does a pretty good job. Nothing else apart from the Yamaha 4C seems to exist below £50, other than used pieces as and when they appear. With my recent reviews of Windcraft Etude Alto and Tenor mpcs, both of which were very positive experiences, I contacted Dawkes...
I was looking for a ligature to use with my Windcraft Etude HR tenor mouthpiece. The only other ligature I have is the one that came with my YTS62. The outer circumference of the Windcraft is rather larger than the Yamaha m/p, so the ligature didn't fit that comfortably. Here's a couple of photos of the ligature I've bought which came today.
This is not the product of a big name organisation, though you may notice some similarities to existing well known products. The cost was £3.90...
Hi There!
Today I took delivery of my new Jean Marc soprano sax ligature, and have just been giving it a play with my usual set up of BW Bronze Curvie, Berg Larsen 70/1 ebonite and Marca 2.5 reeds. Having focussed a lot on soprano over the last few weeks, and preferring the sound of my Selmer 1 screw metal lig over my Vandoren Masters metal lig, I was quite amazed at the sound resulting from the JM metal ligature.
The sound was immediately more 3 dimensional, unbelievably tuneful and had...
I came across this last night and was surprised it had not already been posted here:
Steve Neff's PPT 7* Review
Great sound clips Steve.
Best wishes,
Chris
I will put my possibility of being biased for personal reasons right up front so that hopefully the reader is aware and we can move on. I make mouthpieces and I do a lot of work on Links. That being the case I had to see this piece and review it.
Visual Inspection:
The baffle is much nicer than in the past. They took the weird lake at the bottom of the baffle out which is a good move.
The rails were uneven. I dont put too much stock in this as the thickness of each rail in reference to...