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Mouthpieces When should I go mental?

DavidUK

DavidUK

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:confused:

I have, for Alto, Yam4C, Runyon 22 MPs
For Tenor, Soloist F, Windcraft Student & Etude.

I get on well with the Yam4C, Soloist F, and Windcraft Student.

Toying with the idea of a metal MP (cheapy Chinese jobby?) but is it too early for me (8mths on Alto) and what will I gain sound-wise?

Who has gone from plastic/rubber to metal and back again?
Who went to metal and never looked back, and at what stage of your playing?

What's a good metal MP to start with?

Thanks for all suggestions (well, the sensible ones anyway!).

;}
 
I have gone from HR to metal and back again. I found no difference in sound based on material, just that the mouthpiece was much smaller - metal tenor just like HR soprano etc. For me metal felt unnecessarily expensive and that the best mouthpiece makers were more likely to use HR, Delrin, Resin or similar. On tenor I've tried all metal Links (RG, STM, STM NY), Barone Jazz, Lakey Apollo, Berg Larsen Stainless steel, & Runyon Quantum. The only metal I've really liked was the Runyon Quantum Alto, but just prefer the comfort of HR/Delrin/Resin etc.

It is an experience that many beginners need to go through. Question I would always ask would be - would you buy said mouthpiece readily if it was made of HR? I have never remotely considered getting a cheap Chinese HR mouthpiece, so wouldn't buy a metal one in a month of Sundays. If you want to borrow my Berg Larsen Stainless Steel Tenor (95/1) then feel free to PM me
so you can see what a good one sounds like.
 
There's very little difference sound wise with different materials. In my opinion. I have metal, plastic and ebonite. Metal is more robust and will withstand the little bumps bangs and drops of life unscathed.

Some players don't like the feel of cold metal in their mouth.

The best Chinese ones I've tried are Sharkbite and Delacore. Which may well be the same thing. Gold plated brass.

John Packer do one for close to £100 which looks very similar but who knows if it is. I've not tried that one.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/John-Pack...uments&var=&hash=item232904ce7c#ht_601wt_1157

Identical Chinese mouthpieces seem to shoot up in price when the vendor is based in Europe or USA.

The other cheapy Chinese gold plated tenor mp I tried wasn't what I was looking for. It looked great but sounded brash and bright and seemed to play best with flying goose reeds.
 
My first mouthpiece, when I was 16, was a metal Lawton 7. It was great to learn on, just fantastic, I found I learnt how to play in a range of style from the beginning. My teacher loved it too. A Lawton 7 is 0.100 of an inch, so medium to medium small tip opening, and very manageable. Thirty one years on I still have it, and it's still a good blow, and has survived the span of time and all that use very well. I tend to play my modified Link now, as it just suits me so well, and I find that a wide open piece (10) with a soft reed suits me.

As far as I'm concerned, there's no reason not to buy a metal mouthpiece at any stage in a player's progress - it's just a material. If you want one, get one, but don't think of it as a necessary stage in your development as a player, it just isn't. The idea of "moving up" to a metal mouthpiece is just a myth.

I wouldn't worry about it feeling cold - they do at first, as metal is more conductive, but they warm up quickly.

Loved the typo, by the way.
 
Colin the Bear said:
There's very little difference sound wise with different materials. In my opinion. I have metal, plastic and ebonite. Metal is more robust and will withstand the little bumps bangs and drops of life unscathed.

Some players don't like the feel of cold metal in their mouth.

The best Chinese ones I've tried are Sharkbite and Delacore. Which may well be the same thing. Gold plated brass.

John Packer do one for close to £100 which looks very similar but who knows if it is. I've not tried that one.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/John-Pack...uments&var=&hash=item232904ce7c#ht_601wt_1157

Identical Chinese mouthpieces seem to shoot up in price when the vendor is based in Europe or USA.

The other cheapy Chinese gold plated tenor mp I tried wasn't what I was looking for. It looked great but sounded brash and bright and seemed to play best with flying goose reeds.
Click to expand...
Well, just bought a Sharkbite Alto 6 with lig and cap for £25 on eBay. Will give it a go and then I'll know.

;}
 
I hope you get lucky.
I use a Chinese metal piece on my (Chinese) bari - but I had to go through a whole box of them to find one that worked for me...and a fair number of them didn't work at all.

Over the years I've used a wide variety of pieces in all sorts of materials (even glass) and there are only two considerations I bear in mind when choosing a piece: how it feels in the mouth and how it sounds. Anything else is cheese.
 
in time it may be best to save a while and invest in something better than that 'shark thingy'. i looked into them and the results were varying from players thinking they were 'ok' to the plating coming off in their mouth etc, overall not so good but it may work great for you, who knows.
Not trying to put you off and for £25 , a round of beers here in Norway, you can't go too wrong (i hope)and you could just use it as a tester to see if you like the feel and response of metal in your mouth before you spend lots of money on a better mouthpiece.
I agree with Jonf and Targa as I also have a Geoff Lawton 8 for tenor, was my main piece for 20 years, I refaced it to a MB1 and it blows awesome, different league to the cheap 'far east' stuff out there and this is reflected in the price too!
 
Poor old DavidUK!!! There is a lot of envious comments and remarks about his activities and purchases! Wouldn't it be boring if we were all the same?

Keep buying and trying David, I enjoy the reactions you get!
 
ProfJames said:
Poor old DavidUK!!! There is a lot of envious comments and remarks about his activities and purchases! Wouldn't it be boring if we were all the same?

Keep buying and trying David, I enjoy the reactions you get!
Click to expand...
i am all for his purchase, £25 is a great way to see if he likes metal or not instead of shelling out crazy money and finding out he don't like metal mouthpieces, i say go for it. :thumb:

and if he don't like the cheap one he can always yardsale it or use it to wedge open the door ;}
 
My first tenor piece was a Lawton 10b that I took a chance with off e-bay, as a beginner I found it really easy to get on with, I was using Vandoren V16 2.5 reeds, I still use it from time to time but overall prefer my Sakshama Guardala.
 

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