mistake

[thehunt]

I tried out two new mouthpieces on my sakkusu sax. I can't afford a better sax at the moment so thought i would upgrade from the supplied Yamaha mouthpiece. Tried the Otto link metal 8 and the metal Meyer 7. Reed rico Royal 2.5.Kept the Meyer as it sounded better, however now a few weeks down the line have started playing some jazz ballads and find it quite harsh and bright and not the mellow sound which i thought i would be able to achieve. I would appreciate any thoughts on this, do i change the mouthpiece, reed, fairly new to sax playing so excuse my ignorance.

 

[Pete Thomas]

7 is quite open on alto, I like wide tips on tenor but not alto. What is exactly wrong with the yamaha? They are good mouthpieces.

 

[thehunt]

Hi Pete, i play tenor. I was trying to improve my sound. I was advised to upgrade my mouthpiece. Maybe i should have stayed with it.
What i have done is reduce my reed to a 2 and this did improve it a bit. any more thoughts?

 

[Smiffy]

I have a yamaha 5 on my tenor it's very good
I tried a yamaha 4 and did not like it

 

[Pete Thomas]

thehunt wrote:
Hi Pete, i play tenor. I was trying to improve my sound. I was advised to upgrade my mouthpiece. Maybe i should have stayed with it.
What i have done is reduce my reed to a 2 and this did improve it a bit. any more thoughts?

Ah well, that's different. I haven't tried a meyer on tenor, it's more common as an alto mouthpiece I think.

In that case I would try a Link or a Selmer soloist.

 

[greg_strange]

I am currently playing a Meyer 6M hard rubber mouthpiece on my Walstein tenor and I am finding it a good mouthpiece to play, good for playing ballads, subtone etc, and also good for playing other styles as well - I haven't tried the Meyer metal mouthpieces. Maybe you could take it back to the shop and swap it for a hard rubber piece?

As Pete has pointed out Meyer were popular for alto players than tenor players - the only tenor players I can think of that played Meyer were Stan Getz towards the end of his life, Jimmy Heath, Junior Cook (Horace Silver), Cornelius Bumpus (Doobie Bros & Steely Dan) and Jerry Bergonzi ocassionally.

Another suggestion maybe to try a Vandoren Paris Java mouthpiece.

I hope things work out for you mouthpiece wise.
Regards,
Greg Strange.

 

[Pete Thomas]

Greg Strange wrote:
Another suggestion maybe to try a Vandoren Paris Java mouthpiece.

seconded

 

[thehunt]

Thanks for all the info, what with gradings, arpeggios and scales to learn. Then there's the actual nuts and bolts of getting the right sax , mouthpiece reed aaaarhh! Why did i start? It's a minefield out there, what may be good for one will be bad for another. Anyway would not change it for the world. Hope to be of help to someone one day Phil

 

[peedee]

I had a Yammy 5 on my tenor, and liked it.
I now have a Graftonite 5 on my tenor, and like it even more.
I am going to get a Graftonite for my soprano.
So there :erm: