Rico Royal Graftonite Baritone Piece First Impressions

[Pjonah]

Well, it goes something like this, conversations surrounding Brilhart mouthpieces and Rhys posting an excellent link on Arnold Brilhart.

I have been a life long fan of his pieces, largely because with the exception of my first alto (Conn) fitted with Selmer piece, my tenor (Selmer) came with a Brilhart Ebolin which had seen some action. My teeth went through the bite plate on that after 4 - 5 years, but my sisters father inlaw got me a Brilhart Super Ebolin 5* for my tenor and that was it my life long love affair with all things Brilhart began.

So any way the other day the discussion gets round to trying to find a Brilhart for my baritone, Tommapfumo says Trevor Jones had them in stock for ?18, so I thought I gotta get me one at that price it would be silly not to.

I sat at my desk in the office and typed into google Rico Royal Graftonite Baritone Sax Mouthpiece and the first thing that came up was VS Music Supplies at ?17, so from pressing the Pay now button on Paypal, within 10mins I had an e-mail telling me the pieces was in the mail, the next day it was here.

So what's it like? like all Brilharts, brilliant and ?17, a little brighter than expected, but very responsive and a little too closed for my liking, its a medium facing which is a little too closed for me really, but nothing stronger reeds won't sort.

A quick blast of Line for Lyons and hey ho Gerry Mulligan eat your heart out.

Only gripe is the shank is much smaller than the Hard Rubber Rovner and standard lig I have, its more like a metal mouthpiece size wise. But these are minor gripes really considering the price.

I think the brightness can be atributed to the position of the lig being so far from the tip, I'm sure a smaller lig would improve that.

So to conclude, excellent value, gotta be worth a try for all you bari sax men/women out there.

Why is it these great peices are so cheap? Who only knows, maybe we just don't believe if something doesn't costs alot it can't be good. Well this is good, don't expect Lawton or Yani standards but this is a great piece for silly money.

Simon

 

[Smiffy]

This bargain basement buying is getting out of hand

Walstein, Rico Royal Graftonite

where will it end

 

[Pjonah]

It's a bit like living life on the edge, you're this close to slipping up!

One day its all going to go pear shape, I just know it'll end in tears.

:S

 

[Smiffy]

We will be left with nothing to aspire too


Woe is us :cry:

 

[TomMapfumo]

Thanks for the review PJ. I await my new MPC with great interest. I wonder if it is possible to conduct a comparison (SATB) between the Ricos and the Yamaha plastics, which are the standard starter pieces but are, in reality 25 - 50% more expensive (or up to ?8.00 or so!). which is like getting a free box of Marca Reeds thrown in (in my world, at least).

I guess the focus will move to the cheapest set up - my sax teacher used his clarinet cleaner cloth strap as a ligature on his tenor, and it compared well with his optimum ligature, despite the ?90 price difference. At least it would allow serious players to spend more on recreational drugs, or at least would prove popular with partners during the credit crunch.

Kind regards
Tom

 

[Pjonah]

On Baritone I normally play a Yamaha 5C and a better copy or clone of same.

The Graftonite is better and more responsive than both.

What I like about the Yamaha was its neutrality, the Graf (as it shall be known) has that but with a better response and better top end. Altissimo was even possible, which frankly I normally draw the line at on Baritone, but the upper register was really open.

Its early days yet and experimentation is needed, I'm still grinning because the price is amazing, I wonder if in 6 months time I'll still be with it or back with the 5C or the clone?????

Watch this space.

 

[saxismyaxe]

I've mentioned before what a good piece I think the Graftonite Baritone MP is in particular. I think it is the best one of the model line IE. s/a/t/b.

And as you say, it's hard to go wrong for the little money they cost.

 

[rhysonsax]

I think part of the reason that it was/is so inexpensive is that the way it was made. Arnold Brilhart used his experience of manufacturing in plastics so that the clever moulds meant no (or very little) hand finishing. Certainly none inside, and quite possibly a bare minimum on the facing and rails.

All the money went on the moulds and then the unit production cost was next to nothing.

The selling price might even have been a bit of a problem, with people thinking a piece that cheap couldn't be any good.

This is just the sort of piece that could easily be put in with brand new horns and give beginers a decent start.

Rhys

PS An old catalogue I have got says for the baritone Graftonite and Metalite "requires a standard tenor ligature".

 

[saxismyaxe]

Thanks Rhys. I can attest to just how good the tables are on these, which factors largely toward their playability out of the box. The same was true with the earlier Metalite series.

Many of the much higher priced mouthpieces should have facings that good.

 

[Pjonah]

I see I'm going to have to get an alto Graftonite too, it'll be interesting to compare it to my new Brilhart (Selmer) which cost me ?34.

Sax on a shoestring, maybe this should be a new catagory on the BR?

Hmmm there's a thought!