Mouthpieces PPT Baritone

[singlereed]

My PPT bari piece arrived this week I have had a few minutes with it. First impressions: Loud when pushed. Easy-blowing. Easy subtone. Plenty of growl ('bucket of gravel') when pushed - exactly what I was looking for. Easy to play soft too. Generally, very friendly and I reckon will be easier to live with on a long gig than the '60s Berg Larsen HR 110 sms2 I generally use which is qite a hard blow over an evening. I did find my reeds felt rather soft on this - La Voz Medium and Rico 2.5 were what I had to hand and they tended to shut off when I tried to play altissimo on it. Possibly, the reed is too soft, maybe the ligature is the problem as I haven't really got anything in the house that fits really well; I have had this sensation on other set-ups before and I think it's just a case of finding the reed and ligature that work on it for me. There is also the need to play something for a while and wait while it 'comes into focus'. But, so far, it's great! The material has a pleasing weight to it and it feels nice in the mouth, although I always prefer a patch on anything I play. Very promising so far.

 

[les3716]

Hi, Sounds good from what you say - My personal choice is the selmer soloist D. Our music tech guys are pretty good at setting the right sound level.
Be interested how your setup works out for you.
Regards Les.

 

[VirusKiller]

I did find my reeds felt rather soft on this - La Voz Medium and Rico 2.5 were what I had to hand and they tended to shut off when I tried to play altissimo on it. Possibly, the reed is too soft

Interesting. I've just got my tenor 8* PPT and am having difficulty with front E and F with a strength 2 Legere Sig reed (I don't have this problem with my metal Yani #9).

 

[singlereed]

I really suspect the ligature is the problem, as I say I don't currently have anything that fits really well at the moment. I have had reeds do this for me on other mouthpieces - especially Superial reeds which I could never get to work for me except on a Guardala New Crescent and a Jody Jazz DV New York that my daughter uses (both tenors) where they are fantastic. Funny though, one of the things I usually like about La Voz is the fairly stiff heart to the reed which generally guards against this kind of thing. Still, front E/F can be elusive notes and I have found that when I have changed anything about a horn or set-up, it's something that takes a bit of playing to get nice and clean. I remember when I first started soprano (on an SA80-II), I couldn't get those notes at first and when I changed to a Yani, I then couldn't get them on that ... and when I changed back to Selmer, I couldn't play them on that again but in each case, it gradually came into focus. Anyway, on bari, I'm more concerned about the couple of octaves below that and the PPT sounds awesome! I also have a Soloist for bari and it is great for certain stuff but I really wanted a loud and in your face sound for our (unamplified) big band and it plays very subtly too for those oh-too-rare subtle moments!

 

[rhysonsax]

On my PPT baritone I ended up choosing to play with a fabric Rovner-style lig. It tends to calm down the harsher tendencies of the high baffle.

It's still got a big sound and plenty of edge, but with most of the other ligs I tried, it was a bit too brash. It was also quite an unusual size, so plenty of my existing baritone ligs didn't fit right.

As with other Pillinger-made pieces, it has got a great facing and is reed-friendly.

Rhys

 

[VirusKiller]

I really suspect the ligature is the problem

I think this was my problem too. New mouthpiece, new ligature (Rovner EVO-5 E-2R) and new ligature type meant I was running blind. I tightened the ligature a lot and the squeaking has gone. High front E and F much easier now!

Thanks for the pointer!

 

[singlereed]

Got a new lig for it - a Faxx copy of a Rovner for £15 from Windcraft. Fits well and made a big difference, as you'd expect as it fits (doh!). Still messing with reeds and tried another Rico 2.5 which is working much better. Also had a few tired old Vandoren ZZ 3.0 and although they were a bit knackered, this seems a more promising set-up - I tended to get a bit of unwanted whistling with anything softer. Still, I'm going to persist with what I've got at the moment - have you seen the price of bari (or any) reeds these days?

 

[singlereed]

Now got some Rico Jazz Select 2H reeds. Much imprved - gives me something to work with! I feel I could still go up another grade of reed on this mouthpiece but it really is already something special. As I said, I have been playing an original 60s Berg Larsen which is in itself a really good mouthpiece but this PPT has even more volume and presence and has lots of tone colours to play with. I know I am going to enjoy this a lot!