Mouthpieces Yani mouthpiece advice

I live in India and am coming back to the UK for a week in a fortnight. Me and my son both play a Hanson SA5, with the supplied BG mouthpiece. We have no experience of any other mouthpiece. My son is to do his Grade 5 alto sax exam in October. Whilst back in the UK I'm going to buy a Walstein soprano and tenor sax to take back with me to India for us to play. I've noticed that sax.co.uk have got great offers on Yani mpcs. See:

http://saxophones.co.uk/acatalog/Yanagisawa_Mouthpieces_at_HALF_PRICE_.html

Here are my questions:

1) Is it worth taking the Walstein saxes I buy to sax.co.uk to try these mpcs at half price. I could also try others at the same time.
2) I have no idea what it means by lays. What will this mean to our playing?
3) Are these lays the right one for us? It seems there is an ebonite 8 and a metal 5 for the soprano, an ebonite 7 & 8 for the alto, and an ebonite 8 and metal 9 for the tenor.
4) The alto will have to be bought 'blind' as I can't bring the alto sax back from India to test.
5) Lastly, has anyone any experience of claiming VAT back as you leave the country on goods bought? Apparently you get a customs form from the shop which customs at heathrow stamp, which you then return to the shop and they give the VAT back. Is this easy? Where do you take it at Heathrow?


Any advice, greafully received.

Thanks
 
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Here are my questions:

1) Is it worth taking the Walstein saxes I buy to sax.co.uk to try these mpcs at half price. I could also try others at the same time.
2) I have no idea what it means by lays. What will this mean to our playing?
3) Are these lays the right one for us? It seems there is an ebonite 8 and a metal 5 for the soprano, an ebonite 7 & 8 for the alto, and an ebonite 8 and metal 9 for the tenor.
4) The alto will have to be bought 'blind' as I can't bring the alto sax back from India to test.
5) Lastly, has anyone any experience of claiming VAT back as you leave the country on goods bought? Apparently you get a customs form from the shop which customs at heathrow stamp, which you then return to the shop and they give the VAT back. Is this easy? Where do you take it at Heathrow?


Any advice, greafully received.

Thanks

1) You don't say where you are buying your Walstiens. It may be worth explaining the Yanagisawa deal to them and see what they can do. It may be you prefer a different mouthpiece altogether. However, you should try to visit Sax.co.uk while you are here. There is a lot of choice and proffesional advice.
2) Lays... sometimes called tip openings or facings.
Basically it's the size of the opening at the very tip of the mouthpiece but many makes will vary the shape of the curve that leads to it. I'm sure Pete has information linked on the main site. The chamber and baffle type are equally as important in your overall choice but that is a subject too big to post in this thread, so rely on your ear and the advice of staff in a well established shop.
3) Again good advice should be expected from the dealers you visit.Generally, until you understand your preferences through experience you should go for 'middle of the road' sizes. The 8's and 9's are getting a bit extreme but the answer is that you must try them to find out.
4) You should be able to try it on a horn that is very similar to yours but unfortunately this does still carry a small risk of not being what you expect.
5) errrr....:confused: can't help there i'm afraid.
 
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Always worth a visit to sax.co.uk, but WW&B ltd have a reasonable stock of mouthpieces, don't know about any deals though, you'd need to ask them when you buy the horns - many retailers will do a deal on accessories when you buy a horn.
 
1) You don't say where you are buying your Walstiens. It may be worth explaining the Yanagisawa deal to them and see what they can do.

1) I was going to buy the Walsteins from Woodwind and Brass by mail order - I don't think you can get them anywhere else can you? The special offer Yani mpcs (half price) are at sax.co.uk. However, I don't know whether woodwind and brass could do a deal if I visited them and tried out different mpcs (long way to go though from Suffolk where I'm staying). My original plan was to take the walsteins to sax.co.uk and try out mpcs there (which isn't quite so far!), although they might not appreicate that!

Generally, until you understand your preferences through experience you should go for 'middle of the road' sizes. The 8's and 9's are getting a bit extreme but the answer is that you must try them to find out.

2) Doesn't seem they're quite the right size for me anyway then, apart from the metal 5 for the alto. Perhaps I should go all the way to WW&B and try out different mpcs after all rather than mail order.

Always worth a visit to sax.co.uk, but WW&B ltd have a reasonable stock of mouthpieces, don't know about any deals though, you'd need to ask them when you buy the horns - many retailers will do a deal on accessories when you buy a horn.

3) I'll have to talk to Martin then and see if they will do deal on a mpc when I buy them.

4) Anybody got any opinion about the BG mpcs that come with the Hanson SA5s?
 
1) I was going to buy the Walsteins from Woodwind and Brass by mail order - I don't think you can get them anywhere else can you? The special offer Yani mpcs (half price) are at sax.co.uk. However, I don't know whether woodwind and brass could do a deal if I visited them and tried out different mpcs (long way to go though from Suffolk where I'm staying). My original plan was to take the walsteins to sax.co.uk and try out mpcs there (which isn't quite so far!), although they might not appreicate that!



2) Doesn't seem they're quite the right size for me anyway then, apart from the metal 5 for the alto. Perhaps I should go all the way to WW&B and try out different mpcs after all rather than mail order.



3) I'll have to talk to Martin then and see if they will do deal on a mpc when I buy them.

4) Anybody got any opinion about the BG mpcs that come with the Hanson SA5s?
people bring their own saxes in try try mouthpieces all the time.. not a problem.
by the way - the export stamp for your VAT reclaim is done at customs (warning- legally you shouldn't be able to get paperwork for VAT reclaim on a horn which wasn't bought in-store).
BG mouthpieces- I'd be very surprisd if it wasn't a fairly generic student 'piece- but I could be wrong
 
I am looking for an upgrade mouthpiece for my tenor. An ebonite Yanigasawa is only £62.50 from sax.co.uk. The thing is though, it's a number 8 and I have been playing a Yamaha 5C so I am thinking it might be a bit too wide for my present ability (level 3-4 ish). I know that what I should really do is go down there and try a few, but at this price it might be worth a punt. Any thoughts?
 

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