Hello there,
Garbarek played his tenor sax with an older model of Berg Larsen metal mouthpiece for quite a few years. Listening to those albums for 20 years almost exclusively has shaped the tenor sax sound in my head and what I feel most at home hearing it. In Theo Wanne website before they put down the player setup page, they mentioned that he played Berg Larsen 85/0 metal tenor mouthpiece.
Does anyone know that it was a SMS or M?
FYI:
I have three Berg Larsen tenor pieces. The one that I found has a fatness while lots of buzz is a 1960s duckbill 90/3 SMS that was refaced to 85 and baffle raised to /0. I found the sound is pretty darn close but it is a tricky mouthpiece because the baffle has quite a high rollover start point and it can choke the air in the low notes. I think it could be improved but I don't know any refacer that deals with stainless steel in US / Canada that is not charging too much.
The other two that I have as I heard comment from lots of Berg users, it is a hit and miss and mine are not good. One is a metal 90/1 M which doesn't have that energy. Kind of dull. The other one is 95/0 hard rubber. I heard new hard rubbers are better than new metals but I found that the hard rubber is not my thing and for a /0 it is pretty dull even duller than the 90/1 M. I do feel the M is helping to control the low notes better (or it is just a design parameters difference that I'm not aware of).
Anyway, I'm still looking for my ideal Berg Larsen tenor metal mouthpiece with good old fatness and roaring buzz and plays well top to bottom. I'm thinking I may consider more open tip openings if that helps. I'm ok to play 100/ or even 105/ .
Garbarek played his tenor sax with an older model of Berg Larsen metal mouthpiece for quite a few years. Listening to those albums for 20 years almost exclusively has shaped the tenor sax sound in my head and what I feel most at home hearing it. In Theo Wanne website before they put down the player setup page, they mentioned that he played Berg Larsen 85/0 metal tenor mouthpiece.
Does anyone know that it was a SMS or M?
FYI:
I have three Berg Larsen tenor pieces. The one that I found has a fatness while lots of buzz is a 1960s duckbill 90/3 SMS that was refaced to 85 and baffle raised to /0. I found the sound is pretty darn close but it is a tricky mouthpiece because the baffle has quite a high rollover start point and it can choke the air in the low notes. I think it could be improved but I don't know any refacer that deals with stainless steel in US / Canada that is not charging too much.
The other two that I have as I heard comment from lots of Berg users, it is a hit and miss and mine are not good. One is a metal 90/1 M which doesn't have that energy. Kind of dull. The other one is 95/0 hard rubber. I heard new hard rubbers are better than new metals but I found that the hard rubber is not my thing and for a /0 it is pretty dull even duller than the 90/1 M. I do feel the M is helping to control the low notes better (or it is just a design parameters difference that I'm not aware of).
Anyway, I'm still looking for my ideal Berg Larsen tenor metal mouthpiece with good old fatness and roaring buzz and plays well top to bottom. I'm thinking I may consider more open tip openings if that helps. I'm ok to play 100/ or even 105/ .