Mouthpieces Berg Larsen Tenor Mouthpiece?

[szodiac]

Hi all,
I recently picked up a cheap mouthpiece for my Ref 36. It has Berg Larsen in embossed red lettering and the only other mark is a number 5 - non of the usual 85 2 SMS stuff.
Compared to a standard Berg it's shorter and much fatter.
Does anybody know if this is a fake or as was suggested elsewhere a student variant?
BTW it's actually a nice player - so the dosh wasn't wasted!
Cheers,
Tony

 

[altissimo]

I saw one similar to your description on ebay recently, but not with red lettering
Berg Larsens are usually identified by things like the shape of the beak, the milling marks on the table, whether the 'Berg Larsen' name is slanted or straight etc -
http://www.saxophone.org/museum/mouthpieces/manufacturer/67
http://theowanne.com/knowledge/mouthpiece-museum

Early Bergs had just the tip opening eg 90 and no SMS etc, but a number 5 is very unusual. I've never heard of Berg doing student mouthpieces. I have seen ones where the lettering was so badly done you could hardly read some letters or they had to stamp it twice cos it didn't work the first time, so possible that the 9 of the 95 got missed off
The markings on Bergs are notoriously unreliable - SMS facings the same as M, tip openings either too big or too small, baffle numbers wrong etc and a lot of mythology has evolved - offset M or SMS are supposed to be better etc
I've got 3 ebonite alto Bergs and they're all a bit different in length and one of them is noticeably fatter and it's a tight squeeze getting the lig to fit, so there has been some size variation over the years
All that really matters is that you've got one that plays well

 

[jonf]

Berg Larsen made some student mouthpieces years ago, like the one you describe. Completely different to the normal Bergs, pretty straightforward, basic design.

 

[secondhandsaxes]

can you add a couple of photos?
thanks,philip

 

[szodiac]

Thanks for the input guys. No definitive answer yet.
I don't have a digital camera, but will see if I can get help and post some pics.
Tony

 

[kevgermany]

Camera phone? If you don't have one, you probably know someone who wouldn't mind doing it.

 

[szodiac]

Okay, here's photo 1.

 

[szodiac]

Photo 2

 

[szodiac]

And finally photo 3.

 

[szodiac]

Hi,
So after quite an effort to get these photo's on board... hopefully somebody can give a definite answer to my query.
Is this a real Berg Larsen and if so, what is it?
Cheers,
Tony
PS Couldn't get the upload a file to work had to cut and paste the image!

 

[szodiac]

Okay - no other contributions.
I'll have to tell the person that took the photos it was a wasted effort!
Anyway, thanks to those that did reply to my query.
Tony

 

[kevgermany]

I think it is, there used to be something about them on the mouthpiece museum site.

 

[jonf]

Hi,
So after quite an effort to get these photo's on board... hopefully somebody can give a definite answer to my query.
Is this a real Berg Larsen and if so, what is it?
Cheers,
Tony
PS Couldn't get the upload a file to work had to cut and paste the image!

Yup, it's exactly as the ones I've seen before, the Berg student line I referred to earlier. So, a genuine Berg Larsen, just not of the quality of (the better examples of) their main line pieces.