Mouthpieces The Mouthpiece drawer

Ads

Well-Known Member
"the Mouthpiece drawer" was one thing which I was determined to not end up with - the first few decades of my Sax career was spent with one horn, two Tenor pieces (the ubiquitous Selmer E and also a wide gap Bari for Rock) . when I changed horn to the Infamous Yam 62 "silver lady" last November (or was it October) , I used a narrow gap (5*) Yani and moved quickly on to the PPT 8* and stuck with that , it`s a bright piece so have a plastic and rather stuffy Keilwerth 8 as well (Bought for a tenner - the stock piece for the SX90) ....... so apart from a weird pretty unplayable rubber thing which JamesMac gave me , no spare tenor pieces as I sold the Yani, its predecessors went with the MkVII..

But Alto - Phew - how does one person end up with so many Yamaha 4Cs ?? . I`ve got at least 3 plus a Bari Esprit-II and the "resonite" stock piece which came with the 14M (I sold the 14M with a 4C) ...... I`d not mind but the 4C as a mouthpiece is pretty useless to me - way too narrow ... I`m pretty sure the really old Bakelite lookalike one came with the YAS21 - the mint boxed unused one with the new 62-III I had but can`t think for the life of me where the other two came from .....

What do people (who don`t buy and sell horns) do with 4Cs and other entry level pieces they`ll never use (is there a market for them?) - My Mpc drawer is pretty frugal compared to some - I`d love to know whos got the most unplayed ones kicking about .
 
I`d not knock the 4C, it was a milestone in beginners throw-in mouthpieces - though its inclusion with the 62 and 82 series is a bit silly, but that`s only because of tip size and the pro nature of the horns (a 6C would be closer) ....... I`m sure the things breed though ... 😱
 
My mouthpiece draw is also frugal now compared to what it used to be,5 altos,2 tenors,3 sopranos,1 C mel and 2 sopraninos.
A few years ago i used to have possibly 10 of each including some custom one off LAW mpc's,but have streamlined down and sold most on Ebay.
 
I've just counted 24 alto mouthpieces and none of them are Yamaha 4C's - and no, I don't want to buy one, although a drawer to keep them in might be useful...

oh and there's about 5 soprano mouthpieces, 4 tenor mouthpieces, 3 alto clarinet mouthpieces, 2 C melody mouthpieces and a baritone piece - even though I've never owned a baritone sax..
 
Hmmm, what are the C-Melody ones ?
an original 1920's Conn that came with the sax and another Conn Eagle - I did consider sending one to Morgan Fry and getting it hot rodded - bigger tip opening, roll over baffle etc, but I don't play the C Mel very often. According to my mate, his great uncle bought it off the widow of a guy who committed suicide by drowning in the Assiniboine river in Winnipeg during the Great Depression. We can assume that his despair was not related to being unable to find a decent mouthpiece..
 
Well, I am someone who buys and sells saxes, so for me they go on ones for sale to improve the sale - "Comes complete with a used but good condition Yamaha mouthpiece" so all the ones I've had have gone. I do have a few super cheapo plastic ones, which are handy in case of a sax which needs a piece for me to sell it, but I don't regard these as my mouthpieces. I currently only own three alto pieces. Main one is an Oleg Maestro, customised by Brian Powell, which I use on my Yani and vintage Buescher. It's a slightly raucous high baffle thing, battered but plays great, with a good solid core tone. I also have a Yanagisawa 7 metal, which oddly is better on the Yamaha than the Oleg. I also have a Metalite M7, really just an indulgence, as I now have a full set of Metalites - sop, alto, tenor, bari and C Mel (customised, by me, from a tenor M7)

If I wasn't buying and selling saxes all the time, I'd do as Kev does, and punt them out on eBay. They always sell, even if not for very much.
 
. I currently only own three alto pieces. Kev does, and punt them out on eBay. They

I think most must settle on about 3 regulars for Altos - I have LAW metals in both a large chamber standard and Bullet baffle Buzzer, both are pretty bright , the buzzer especially . I`ll probably keep the old 4C as it belongs with the 21 - one of the others would go wit the Sakkusu if I ever sold it - the Bari Esprit II isn`t worth much and the new 4C probably the only seller

Pete - Likewise , I`d actually prefer to use the 4C with a hard reed on it to the Esprit-II
 
Was kinda hoping there was a modern cheap rubber link or something there you`d get rid of (I may have actually found a Sak which is really a C-Melody !!)
Did Otto Link ever make C melody mouthpieces? I haven't got any cheap Links, mine are too good to get rid of.
If you can find a Runyon C melody piece it could be worth a try, but they've ceased production.
Ed Pillinger would probably make you one
I don't know if the Zinner is any good - http://www.hans-zinner.de/html/c-tenor1.html
 
Did Otto Link ever make C melody mouthpieces?

I honestly don`t know but thought that if any prolific maker would, it`d be them - or Vandoren, but I don`t like Vandorens even for Clarinet .. If I manage to get it (and it really is a C ) I`ll try both tenor and alto pieces I have (including 4Cs in both types with a very hard reed) ..

I always wondered why the C-Melody wasn`t called the Contralto ....... maybe because it was invented in the USA ?
 
I have , yeah and thanks - I was thinking of finding a tenor piece which suits and if necessary, modding to fit better ..... I can understand why makers don`t go out of the way to make C pieces (which I guess take Tenor reeds ?) but there could do with being a few more
 

Members' Blogs

Trending content

Forum statistics

Topics
29,594
Messages
513,154
Members
8,740
Latest member
Sillywizard
Back
Top Bottom