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Mouthpieces Bari Esprit II Alto MP - The clarification thread

DavidUK said:
Spoke to Roz this morning at TJ/Worldwind. Confusion yesterday.

Up to now they have distributed Esprit/Satin/Round chamber & Esprit II/Satin/Square chamber.
No more stocks of Esprit II will be distributed in the UK.
The Esprit/Polished/Round chamber version is the only one they will distribute to all UK retailers in future.

They sent the last three Esprit II Satin/Square to Omega yesterday.
JP have only 15 Esprit II Satin/Square on their shelf this morning. They have discontinued the free lig/cap as only their previous stocks of Esprit/Satin/Round came with those (they honoured my order by adding a lig/cap). They have amended their web page to reflect this, and changed the description to Esprit II.

In summary, there are Esprit (round chamber) and Esprit II (square chamber) for Alto. Each come in satin or polished finish. Only Esprit Polished will be available in future in the UK. There will be some old stocks of Esprit Satin and Esprit II Satin at UK retailers until sold. All finishes unavailable in the UK are available from Bari in the US.
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Sorry not been on forum as been out all day but back now. To update, following a phone call to Joanne at Omega yesterday in which I enquired as to the situation with their future supplies of Esprit II square chamber, she phoned back first thing this morning to say she had a esprit II square chamber and would I like it - you betcha. So it's in the post will update when it arrives.
 
I had an email from this Roz person, simply informing me that they were no longer importing the Esprit II, just the original Esprit.
I am very disappointed at what seems a stupid decision based on some feedback from some tutors - presumably those of younger pupils who own/rent/play Trevor James saxes - who prefer the more classical feel of the Esprit. I'm surprised that as a result a choice is to be removed as it only seems to care about the mouthpieces supplied with Trevor James saxophones, rather than the wider public as a whole.

I told her that I was unhappy about this loss of choice - I recommend the Esprit II because I have played it and think very highly of it.
 
A further email from Ros Sexton states that certain retailers who wish to stock the Bari Esprit II alto mouthpieces will be able to order them from Trevor James, so not very clear communication. Now seems that the original Esprit - polishes and with a round chamber - will be supplied with the Trevor James Classic and Alphasax, but that the matt, square chamber Esprit II's will still be available in UK!
 
SaxMart said:
Sorry not been on forum as been out all day but back now. To update, following a phone call to Joanne at Omega yesterday in which I enquired as to the situation with their future supplies of Esprit II square chamber, she phoned back first thing this morning to say she had a esprit II square chamber and would I like it - you betcha. So it's in the post will update when it arrives.
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Bari II square chamber arrived from Omega as promised and I'm very happy with it. Blows nice with a bit more edge and volume than Yam 4C and although my embouchure is still developing I can get up to top F ( with a little work) without squeaking which I couldn't do with the 4C. For me it works better with a Rico 2 than a 2 1/2 and the very bottom notes are rich without jumping up even at fortissimo. So very happy with it now just need to sand the cork down a tad as it's a tighter fit than the 4C, can anyone advise on the best way to do this (DIY is not my strong point ). Just had to phone Joanne at Omega to thank her for her trouble she says the situation with future esprit II is still unclear
 
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The future is NOT unclear. The ordinary Esprit will be supplied with the Trevor James saxes and the Esprit II can be stocked by retailers if they want it according to Ros Sexton of Trevor James, as mentioned above. I'll drop Joanne at Omega a line.

Glad you like the Esprit II, by the way!
 
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TomMapfumo said:
The future is NOT unclear. The ordinary Esprit will be supplied with the Trevor James saxes and the Esprit II can be stocked by retailers if they want it according to Ros Sexton of Trevor James, as mentioned above. I'll drop her a line.

Glad you like the Esprit II, by the way!
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It was Roz/Ros I spoke to yesterday who said ONLY the Esprit standard polished with round chamber will be imported in future, and the LAST EVER stocks of Esprit II had gone out from her the day before? She did also say she'd had a dozen calls on the Esprit so maybe there HAS been some kind of backlash (thanks to folks like Tom) which has made TJ rethink already?

Bear in mind that Odette at JP, who deals with their mail orders and with whom I spoke yesterday, had no idea there were two versions, and then found the two versions on her shelf albeit only one of the round/satin jobbies.

Oh.... must actually go give mine a blow!! Suffering with a bad back currently makes it unattractive however. :(
 
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I had the impression yesterday that (apart from Tom and I) other Cafe members had phoned Ros at TJ to query the future availability of whatever Esprit. Am I correct? Or it may have been retailers phoning her passing on concerns/comments from members?
 
I only contacted Omega when I ordered the II and they asked if there had been a review due to increased interest (from the other thread?) I said that a few were talking on a forum about them and that the piece was supposed to be decent for the money (we don`t want them pushing the price up do we, if they bother to source them)..
 
It may well have been a change of decision on TJ's part but my email from Ros was at 13.01pm today when she said they would be able to supply the Esprit II to any retailers that wanted them. I was quite clear that her research was flawed!

Having just checked my emails I did receive one from Ros at 12.19pm to say that TJ would only be importing the Bari Esprit round chamber - so the change must have happened between the two emails after receiving my very critical response. Ackerman Music is one retailer that was very committed to continue stocking the Esprit II.
 
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The research that TJ seemed to have done is to elicit some feedback from your stereotypical school woodwind teacher of youngsters, playing in a windband and similar, and no attention was given to adult learners/players, only a small percentage of which played Trevor James saxes, and a number of whom had bought an Esprit II and been duly impressed - hence Ackerman Music describing them as "very popular" and that they intend continuing to stock them. I imagine TJ registered that their research was flawed and changed policy very quickly.
 
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TomMapfumo said:
The research that TJ seemed to have done is to illicit some feedback from your stereotypical school woodwind teacher of youngsters, playing in a windband and similar, and no attention was given to adult learners/players, only a small percentage of which played Trevor James saxes, and a number of whom had bought an Esprit II and been duly impressed - hence Ackerman Music describing them as "very popular" and that they intend continuing to stock them. I imagine TJ registered that their research was flawed and changed policy very quickly.
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Power to the people Amen!
 
My Esprit II arrived this morning so I thought I`d post a pic comparison with the Hanson "Easyreed" piece I`ve mentioned before as I always guessed it`d be much the same as the Esprit-II due to the construction and square chamber and as you can see from these pics, there`s little if any difference . The Hanson is possibly even cheaper than the Esprit (you`ll need to ring them to make sure) so a viable alternative .. I`ve not compared them on-horn yet, click on image to upsize and again for full size

MPC-Comp.jpg
 
Ads said:
My Esprit II arrived this morning so I thought I`d post a pic comparison with the Hanson "Easyreed" piece I`ve mentioned before as I always guessed it`d be much the same as the Esprit-II due to the construction and square chamber and as you can see from these pics, there`s little if any difference . The Hanson is possibly even cheaper than the Esprit (you`ll need to ring them to make sure) so a viable alternative .. I`ve not compared them on-horn yet, click on image to upsize and again for full size
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What choice of reed is there with the hanson?
Could you post a link to the relevant Hanson page/s please? Thanks.
 
Once you`ve picked the pips off (they`re not glued on hence the holes in the pic) you can fit anything . their website is down at the moment and not much use when its up so the Phone is the best bet, they`re open Saturdays too til about 1:00..

Basically it looks to me like a shiny Esprit-II with just Bari on it and two tiny pinholes in (which don`t go all the way through) for the pip stalks...

They`ve got Tenor ones coming soon, it`ll be interesting if they`re square chamber also - if so then it`s an answer to the Esprit-II Tenor problem
 

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