Mouthpieces Phil Tone Sapphire Review

[Tanny]

Here is a brief review of my Phil Tone Sapphire (7) tenor mouthpiece that I recently got from Phil. As background I am very happy with my metal Navarro Bebop Special, it is a great mouthpiece with a very ‘clear’ modern sound. Having said that I wanted to have an alternative that was a bit darker. I contacted Phil about the Sapphire and he gave me some great advice and thought that the Sapphire would suit the bill. To cut a long story, short and having played the Sapphire for about a month now, I am very happy with it. Curiously, it feels a bit more open than my 7* Navarro, but I found that didn’t have to change my reeds and could easily use my Rigottii Gold Jazz 3 light/medium reeds. It took a little bit of getting used to being a bit wider than my metal piece but that is now sorted. As to the sound, it is definitely darker and I would say that it seems to have plently of rich harmonic overtones. Phil describes it as smokey which probably means the same thing! Anyway I am very pleased to have the Sapphire which is a great complement to my Navarro piece. Highly recommended. (One additional thing that I noticed is that it does smell quite strongly of rubber (sulphur), so Phil suggested to use olive oil to fix this which works a treat, and I found that the Doctor Slick cork grease works equally well).

 

[StageFright]

+1 I bought a Sapphire 6* from Phil about 6 months ago after an extensive search and many trials of lots of various mouthpiece brands from Vandoren, Meyer,Morgan, Lamberson, 10Mfan and others.. I emailed Phil with a description of what I was interested in (dark, smokey, lush/rich) and he suggested the Sapphire. First play and I was hooked; even better it worked equally well on 4 different tenors, and with the same reed I'd been using previously. Phil is a great person to deal with and he makes a great (IMHO) product. BTW, I'm not affiliated with Phil in any way other than as a very satisfied customer.

 

[Tanny]

That sounds great. Glad that you had a similar experience

 

[Phil]

Im happy you both are enjoying the pieces and thank you for your kind words. Let me know if I can help with anything, anytime.

Phil

 

[jlmo]

Here is a brief review of my Phil Tone Sapphire (7) tenor mouthpiece that I recently got from Phil. As background I am very happy with my metal Navarro Bebop Special, it is a great mouthpiece with a very ‘clear’ modern sound. Having said that I wanted to have an alternative that was a bit darker. I contacted Phil about the Sapphire and he gave me some great advice and thought that the Sapphire would suit the bill. To cut a long story, short and having played the Sapphire for about a month now, I am very happy with it. Curiously, it feels a bit more open than my 7* Navarro, but I found that didn’t have to change my reeds and could easily use my Rigottii Gold Jazz 3 light/medium reeds. It took a little bit of getting used to being a bit wider than my metal piece but that is now sorted. As to the sound, it is definitely darker and I would say that it seems to have plently of rich harmonic overtones. Phil describes it as smokey which probably means the same thing! Anyway I am very pleased to have the Sapphire which is a great complement to my Navarro piece. Highly recommended. (One additional thing that I noticed is that it does smell quite strongly of rubber (sulphur), so Phil suggested to use olive oil to fix this which works a treat, and I found that the Doctor Slick cork grease works equally well).

hello there, after having playing a bop boy 7*for few years, i have been playing recently a sapphire for few weeks now, a 7.
i must say it has personnality, it has both modern and old sound, very comfortable and quite a clear sound.
does anyone has tried a bahia AR metal ?