Jon Van Wie’s Words On Mouthpiece Work
August 14th, 2009 | 
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This is the first post I read of Jon Van Wie’s. This was on one of the google forums back in the late 90′s. I never heard of the guy or his work but reading this post you can sense the love, passion and focus he had for his work. Soon after this I sent him a few mouthpieces to reface for me. My main gigging tenor piece is a piece that he worked on. The JVW Link STM 8. He put a baffle in it just like he talks about in this letter he wrote. Another mouthpiece that I still have is my Early Babbitt HR Link that he worked on. I’ll never forget when he called me up one night all excited about that HR Link and how well it played. He just kept talking on and on about it he was so excited. Jon has since passed away and many sax players miss him dearly. I just found this post and wanted to share it with all of you. I was just sitting here reading it again and found myself getting emotional just from the passion of his words about working with mouthpieces. Jon was a true craftsman and I miss him.
“I’m forever trying to find the perfect mouthpiece for myself and up till
now, I’ve come up empty handed. I can make them all play, but I’ve been
doing some experiments that have given results that have changed the way I
view everything.
There’s a secret locked inside, and I may have found it. It has to do with
facing curve, baffle and chamber relationship. They together provide the
best possible sound in your horn.
I just did two Otto Links for tenor. (Otto Links have a sound that a lot of
players call tubby. Not modern in any way.) In the past I would add a little
baffle right behind the tip rail and the sound would get a zing it didn’t
have before.(I would leave the chamber alone.) The catch was, how the piece
would act in the extreme altissimo range. The notes would pinch off at a
certain spot and generally speaking, the upper register would always sound a
little thin compared the rest of the horn.
To alleviate that problem, I cut the upper baffle lower and added
material*** behind the upper baffle down into the chamber, filling in the
whole circle, side rails as well. The pieces finally had the same punch in
every register! They both had a very loud and an easy to control voice, with
no chirping! I hit on something that is so vital to the function of the
saxophone mouthpiece that it’s one of the biggest advances that I’ve ever
made!
I just sent the pieces back to their owners. I can’t wait to hear their
views on how they play!
I think there’s a place for every piece to be that makes it the best it can
be, but I don’t think its possible to find without the player. I think
everyone agrees, when something’s right! The question is for whom? Each
player has a different oral cavity that makes their sound their own.
The resonant cavity that the reed creates with the baffle and facing curve
play a big role in your sound. Finding the perfect baffle, chamber and
facing curve for you is something that requires a great deal of research.
Maybe your piece is not what it should be for you. If you think that, you
should tell me what you think and I will give you a hand.
*** The epoxy I use to expand the inside of the piece is non-toxic when
cured and will NOT fall out with prolonged use.
This experiment started a few months back when the great player Dave Tofani
from New York (who plays with everyone) called me after seeing some of my
work that one of his students Mike Lawrence had.(I did 5 Florida Links, 2
slant line Links and a Hollywood Dukoff for Mike!) Dave had a vintage
Florida Link 8 that he had since it was new and it never played right. He
hoped I could do something with it.
Just because it’s a Florida Link means nothing. Just because it has the size
stamped on the side doesn’t mean it was handed down by God. The facing was
installed poorly and it was even crooked out at the tip.
So, I refaced Dave’s 8 and sent it back. Dave told me that the piece was
greatly improved and now was Link with “zing”, but what he really wanted was
a more modern sound. The tubby-ness on the bottom of the stack was something
he wanted to loose. I told him that I didn’t like to add baffle to Florida
period Links because of there value. He told me that he didn’t care, he just
wanted the piece to work. He was still using a piece that his teacher Joe
Allard had given him years ago. It had a baffle in it machined from brass.
I installed a big roll over R&B kind of baffle for Dave and sent it back.
After playing the piece a bit, Dave came to the conclusion that the piece
was now too bright in the upper register. He complained that his high
altissimo notes were too thin sounding, yet he was pleased that it lost the
tubby-ness, so he sent the piece back for a readjustment. With the piece he
sent a photo of his favorite piece and I could see that the baffle was long
and low.
I lowered the baffle and hit on something that Dave could really make sing.
This led me to believe that the angle behind the tip rail going into the
chamber was playing a crucial role in the altissimo range. The quality of
the notes in the altissimo was Dave’s thing. He didn’t want the extremely
high notes to sound thin. Mission accomplished!
The next piece that I wanted to experiment with was a butchered Link. It was
owned by my client David Mann.(Tower of Power) The piece had the chamber
expanded with a Dremel, and a primitive looking baffle was added. I popped
the baffle out and there were deep grooves in the baffle area that had the
lumpy baffle stuck to it. Now I could see that not only did I need to add a
new baffle, but I also wanted to fill back in the chamber that had been
mutilated.
I could tell by looking at the piece that it was an early Babbit Link and
they have extra large chambers to begin with. I thought it would be good to
shrink the chamber a bit from where it was to begin with.(Like a Florida
Link.) I kept Tofani’s baffle profile in mind and I re-constructed the
baffle.
The piece in the end didn’t sound vintage unless I used little air, then it
sounded warm, but not tubby. Then when I pushed the piece it responded
evenly, even in the altissimo range! It was also about twice as loud as a
Link. The work I did with Dave Tofani really paid off. It seems his idea
about the baffle profile was hitting on a hidden truth inside the Link blank
for a modern player.
I sent that piece back to David and he’ll be getting it on Monday. I’ll
post his findings. I think I know what he’s going to say already.
The next Link I did was owner by Dirk Zeylmans. It was also a early Babbit
Link. Dirk gave me the freedom to do what ever I wanted. He’s going to be
very happy with the piece! It spoke with the same power as the others.
I think the old Links were good for the time, but now players need a little
more cutting power for a modern music application. Not bright and edgy, but
loud and full.
Players ask me all the time, what metal piece do you think I should buy? I
honestly don’t know. I think everything is made today in such a rushed
fashion that most of them need to be finished.
It takes time to do really excellent work. I spent an entire day on David
Mann’s piece alone. Once I put the epoxy in place, it has to be filed and
smoothed out to the right shape, then I do the reface. JVW
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I had a JVW refaced Meyer that was my favorite piece. I was struck when I had Jon do the piece how polite and humble he seemed to be. When I got the piece back, I could tell he had done some very nice work on it, but when I tried it, I didn’t like how the piece played. I couldn’t get it to sing for me. So, I put it in a drawer and didn’t touch it again for about a month.
When I tried it a month later, holy smokes! That piece was absolutely amazing. I played that piece for several years, never once feeling the need or even desire to look at other sax mouthpieces. I emailed Jon and relayed the entire experience to him. He was so thrilled that I had taken the time to try the piece again. He wrote on about how many players didn’t spend enough time with a piece before deciding they don’t like something about it. He seemed genuinely pleased at my becoming comfortable with the piece he did for me.
A few years after Jon’s passing, the piece hit the stage floor at church, breaking the tip into little fragments. I probably looked as if I were about to cry. I still have the piece in a drawer. I’ve since spent far too much money looking for a piece I like anywhere near as well.
Man, that stinks. I know if that happened to me I would be devastated. I’ve been looking for someone that will copy it for me but haven’t found anyone I really know well yet that can do it.
We all cringe at the thought of that happening to any saxophone player. I’ve bought some pieces from Ed Pillinger in London England. I love the pieces he’s made for me and I know that he is known for making wonderful copies of pieces on request. He is very kind, knowledgeable, and such a gentleman. You can get his contact information at http://www.edpillingermouthpieces.co.uk
Good luck, rob…