Archive for the ‘Alto Mouthpiece Reviews’ Category

This is a great alto mouthpiece that I bought from Greg Wier.  I’ve seen all of his mouthpieces on ebay for quite some time now and have wondered how they are. I trialed one of his tenor mouthpieces awhile ago and was very impressed with it.  This alto mouthpiece is terrific also.  It’s got that really great Meyer sound to it. Very focused sound with some nice edge to it but it still sounds nice and fat to me.  I love playing this piece in a big room.  It just sings. It’s a little brighter than I normally like on alto but I’m finding that it is a “pretty” kind of bright and it gives it a very lively sound.  I’m really digging this piece.  This is one of my favorite pieces I’ve tried.  Here’s Greg’s email address in case you are interested in his pieces. gregwier@netscape.com Listen………

I received my Phil-Tone alto mouthpiece from Philip Engleman.  Phil is known as Sigmund451 on SOTW (that’s Sax on the Web).  I was impressed with the mouthpiece just like I was with his tenor piece.  I just slapped a reed on it and it played great.  It has some nice volume to it and a great lead alto type sound.  One of those pieces with a big full sound with loads of power when pushed.

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This is the Freddie Gregory refaced HR link that I recorded on another clip. It played great but to be honest…..it was way to picky with reeds.  It would take me forever to find a good reed.  I sent it to Brian and had him work on it and set the tip at .080 which I like.  It’s much easier to find a reed for it now. Beautiful sounding mouthpiece. I like these hard rubber links over the Meyer type pieces because in general they are a bit darker and fatter sounding to me.

This is a Vandoren V16 A5M that I bought from Dave Valdez in Portland. Dave had Brian Powell reface the mouthpiece to a .080 and put a very long facing curve on it (23mm) that matched a Slant Link that has been Dave’s main piece forever.  The reason I bought this piece was because I heard a bootleg recording of Dave playing in some club and he had a killer alto sound and style.  Dave and I went to Berklee together back in the ’80’s. I like this piece a lot!!

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This is a Berg Larsen hard rubber mouthpiece that I won on ebay.  It was advertised as being worked on by Freddie Gregory.  I was not happy with it when I got it at all. I would be very surprised if Freddie Gregory had worked on this. It didn’t seem to play like most of his other pieces I hav tried.  It was too mellow sounding and I couldn’t get any volume out of it.  It’s like I would blow to get louder and it would just get stuck at one medium volume.  So what did I do? Yes, you guessed it…..I sent it to Brian Powell and he put his facing curve on it and put it at .080. It has more power now but is too bright for my tastes now.  It is great for that kind of sound though so I have kept it around.  Plays effortlessly.

This is a hard rubber otto link I bought on ebay.  It was advertised as being worked on by John Reilly and had a  5* facing on it.  It played well but was a little too closed for me.  I sent it to Brian Powell and had him reface it to a  .080 which is my preference on alto.  It came with a box that has  a Florida  address on it so I assume it’s one of those straight sig mouthpieces that came from Florida after the slant signature production stopped.  It plays great lots of power to it and a nice roll over baffle for some extra edge when needed. This one of the brighter  HR links that I have played.

This was a Meyer G with a 5 opening. It was way to small for my tastes. I sent it to Brian Powell to reface it and open it to a .076. It played nice before and had a lot of volume but it felt to closed for me.  This was the first piece I had Brian Powell work on and his work is excellent!  This piece plays great.  Nice volume and tone.  It’s also very easy to find a reed for it.  I’m using a ligature I made out of a rovner I had lying around.  I never really like the rovners on alto.  I felt like they took to many of the highs out of the sound.  I cut a small slit in the bottom of the fabric and stuck a plate from my Vandoren Optimum ligature into it.  I really like the sound I get with this setup.  I just sent Brian Powell two Early Babbitt links to put the same facing on. I can’t wait to get them back.

I just received this in the mail today.  It is a metal Otto Link that was refaced by Freddie Gregory. Like I mentioned on some other posts, you can’t go wrong with anything Freddie Gregory worked on.  I won it on ebay and the seller said it plays great with a huge fat warm sound!  It plays great and is very easy to blow but I don’t think I would describe it as fat and warm.  It makes me lean toward a Sanborn type style.  I use to have a piece like this years ago.  I might record another clip with more of a straight ahead sound and see how it sounds on that.  I think this piece would sound killer on a pop gig with some reverb added.  It has a nice resonance to the sound. I think it’s pretty cool.

This is an old slant signature 5* hard rubber link that was refaced by Ralph Morgan.  I just bought it and am getting used to it.   Ralph opened it up to around a 7 and put a metal band around the shank.  When I first got the piece the bore was so small that I couldn’t fit it on my neck (I just put a new cork on).  I knew that I would crush my cork just to try a piece out and I wasn’t very happy about it. I decided to take a chance and got a drumstick that just fit into the bore.  I wrapped really fine sandpaper around it so it fit snuggly into the bore, inserted it and I turned it a few times.  I did this 5 or 6 times each time washing it out and then trying it on the neck. I made sure I didn’t go any further than the mouthpiece would sit on the cork because I didn’t want to enlarge the chamber.  At the end it fits perfectly on the cork and I can get it in tune.  It plays great on my Reference 54.  It’s cool……with a harder reed it gets a kind of Paul Desmond type singing quality to the high notes.  I just played it for an hour or two so I’m still getting use to it.  It plays very differently than the Freddie Gregory link 7 I have. It doesn’t feel as open as that to me nor as loud but it has a lot of potential I think. Can you tell I’ve been practicing my diminished scales lately?

One of my students challenged me to play this song……so I’ve been working on it.  It’s getting there.   Man this thing is hard.  I’m going to keep working on it until it’s perfect and I can play it in my sleep………. I’m dedicating this one to my Dad. He use to come to all my concerts and after every concert would say “Pretty good son but……..you need to work on your technique! It’s all about your technique! If you don’t have good technique……….” Anyways, here you go Dad. I know, I know…..technique! I’m playing this on a Selmer Reference 54 alto saxophone and my Freddie Gregory refaced HR Link 7. Not bad for a jazz player………..