Finished with the Absolute mouthpieces. What a fun this week was. Many thanks to Marco / Absolute for the opportunity to test his great mouthpieces.
They are now with Kev again who will in time forward them.
Alto (Yamaha with Rico Royal and Vandoren blue)
Great pieces, very well made. My regular mouthpiece is a Meyer M6M from current production.
Resin: Very good intonation over the whole range, plays very even. Slightly darker sound than my Meyer but with much presence, good projection and a slightly broader tone. It is not as dark as a OL Tone Edge 6 I played from comparison. I only realized in direct comparison that my Meyer has some resistance while the Absolute was free blowing and effortless to play. Makes me wonder if a less resistant mouthpiece would a good thing to have. I like my Meyer but... This mouthpiece is easy to manage and is a serious contender to stock Meyers.
Steel: A bit wide with 7*. Never played such an opening before. Nevertheless with a softer reed easy to handle. I had expected some difficulties and squeaks. Nothing at all. With Vandoren blue 2 and Rico 2,5 very easy to play, free blowing and even across the range. Intonation was good but not as good as with the resin. Could very well be it was the big opening that took its toll and required more control from my side. What surprised me was that it didn't start to squeak when my embouchure got tired. That happens normally, with the steel I played until nothing more would sound, but no squeaks. Now, what about the sound? Significantly more on the bright side than the resin or my Meyer. Very solid bottom, great upper octave and loads of projection. If you play a bright sax as my YAS-475 is darker reeds might be an idea to soften up the mouthpiece a bit. The tone is more focussed than the resin. I quite liked the sound. If you are after a great mouthpiece with projection this could be for you.
Tenor (Jupiter with Rico Royal)
Very well made. My regular mouthpiece is a Brancher J27 (=0.108).
Resin: Was the biggest of the mouthpieces tested. Felt bigger than the bari piece. It played well across the range, spoke easily with a good sound. It had less presence and projection than expected from the design and a 7* opening. Relative to its opening it was a bit resistant. As you have guessed from my review of the other pieces I am a fan of a solid a bit more noisy sound. So, the tenor resin is a good piece but does not fit my preferences.
Steel: Free blowing, again as the other steel pieces with good presence and projection. A 6* requires a stiffer reed which I do not have routinely. I digged out a single new Rico Royal 3,5 and used my regular broken in 3,0 reeds. Long story short, the reeds I had available did not match the mouthpiece well and I did not buy alternatives for the test. I might not do justice to the mouthpiece so I will not go into details and leave it to your own test. I have talked to Kev and he had no problems at all with this mouthpiece. So test yourself.
Conclusion
Absolute mouthpieces are great mouthpieces at a very decent price that deserve to be more widely known. The Absolutes are free blowing and easy to control. The basic sound concept appears, for most of the tested mouthpieces, to be in the middle or slightly on the bright side. Most pieces have good or very good projection. For me and with the saxes used a warm sound can be obtained but I feel that it is not the sound I would naturally play with it. My favorite one of these 7 mouthpieces is clearly the steel soprano piece. For the alto pieces, I am still mulling about which one I would pick. Time will tell if I replace my Meyer. A final warning, should you participate in the pass around you might end up with even several new mouthpieces.
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