Steve Neff Music Blog » Alto Mouthpiece Reviews

Drake Vintage Resin NY Jazz Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

steve — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 15:24:04 +0000

Yesterday, I received a box from Aaron Drake at Drake Mouthpieces. I couldn’t open it fast enough. Inside were 3 brand new vintage resin alto saxophone mouthpieces for me to try. I’ve been wanting to try these for months now and I was very excited. This is the second mouthpiece I tried of the three. It is the NY Jazz model and has a 6 tip opening (.080).The NY Jazz model has a medium rollover baffle that slides down into a medium chamber. This mouthpiece has the fattest sound of the three Drake alto mouthpieces I received. It reminds me of a Cannonball Adderley type of sound. Big and fat with a nice sparkle to the sound. All the notes had a roundness to then that I loved. Down low it could get nice and lush and up high the notes were nice and round sounding. There was no harshness with this mouthpiece at all……………………

Drake NY Jazz Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

Appearance:

The tip and rails of this mouthpiece are perfect. The tip curve matches my Vandoren Java reeds perfectly. The baffle is a smooth rollover as you can see in the pictures and is completely even. The chamber looks to be a similar size to a medium chamber Meyer. The mouthpiece has a nice copper band around the shank end and the engravings on it are neat and nice to look at. The bore of the mouthpiece was bigger than my other alto mouthpieces and I had to wrap some paper around my cork to get it to fit on snuggly. The bore was even bigger then the Jazz and Contemporary alto mouthpieces that I received with it. No big deal. The outside dimensions of the mouthpiece are a bit smaller than other alto mouthpieces so you should be aware of that when trying to find a ligature. My Marc Jean ligature was too big and my Vandoren Optimum barely tightened on enough. I ended up using a Theo Wanne “Enlightened” ligature that tightened on well.

Tone:

I provide the clips on here so you can make your own judgment on what the characteristics of the tone are. In my mind this mouthpiece has a fatter tone that leans towards the darker side of things. It’s close to that midway point between dark and bright. I felt the notes and a beautiful thick roundness to them that I loved. Not thin sounding at all. Like I stated above it had a Cannonball Adderley type tone to it when I played it. FAT! I also noticed that I could easily manipulate the tone of the NY Jazz. It seemed like it fit me perfectly. The slightest changes of embouchure, throat or tongue and I could hear a change in the sound. I really loved that.

Intonation:

Intonation was great with this mouthpiece and within normal limits.

Control:

This was a very easy mouthpiece to play and control. It is very even sounding up and down the horn. The tone of the mouthpiece really makes it easy to play fast. It’s almost like the notes just blend together on those fast runs. Large intervals were easy to play also.

Volume:

The NY Jazz wasn’t as loud as the Contemporary model I played yesterday but it was plenty loud for a jazz gig. I was playing at about 80% air output for me and it filled up the room. If I was playing a Top 40 gig I would probably go for the contemporary model but I think this NY Jazz would do all right once you got used to it.

Great job Aaron Drake! If you are curious about trying Aaron’s mouthpiece you can visit his website at www.DrakeMouthpieces.com for more information.

Drake Vintage Resin Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece Comparison

steve — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 01:20:53 +0000

I thought I’d put up a comparison post of the three Drake vintage resin alto saxophone mouthpieces I received today. I will be doing a separate review for each mouthpiece but I thought that if I played a simple melody on all 3 next to each other you could hear the differences better. On these clips I’m playing the first 16 bars of “Stella By Starlight”. Nothing fancy, just the melody. Hopefully, you will be able to hear the differences in the tone of each mouthpiece. Let me know what you think……………………

From Left to Right: NY Jazz, Jazz,Contemporary

Drake Contemporary Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

Drake Jazz Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

Drake NY Jazz Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Drake Vintage Resin Contemporary Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

steve — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 20:22:10 +0000

I’m starting to get overwhelmed by how many great mouthpieces are out there today. This morning I received a box from Aaron Drake at Drake Mouthpieces. I couldn’t open it fast enough. Inside were 3 brand new vintage resin alto saxophone mouthpieces for me to try. I’ve been wanting to try these for months now and I was very excited. The first one I played was this one. It is the contemporary model and has a 6 tip opening (.080). It has a high long baffle in it that scoops into the chamber sort of like a Berg or RPC mouthpiece would. There’s no edges on the decline of the baffle into the chamber. The high baffle gives this mouthpiece a brighter, punchier sound that is great for modern playing…………………..

Drake Contemporary Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

Appearance:

The tip and rails of this mouthpiece are perfect. The tip curve matches my Vandoren Java reeds perfectly. The baffle is high and long as you can see in the pictures and is completely even. The chamber has a smooth horse shoe shape to it that reminds me of some hard rubber Berg Larsen’s and RPC’s I have played. I’m not sure what size the chamber is? It looks to be the same size as a medium Meyer. The difference is that the baffle extends into the chamber and then slopes down into it. The mouthpiece as a nice copper band around the shank end and the engravings on it are neat and nice to look at.

Tone:

You can make your own decision from listening to the clip, but I would place this mouthpieces tone in the brighter end of the spectrum. It’s not as bright as some other alto mouthpieces I have tried but it’s getting close. I like the fact that you can back off of it with your air and it mellows out a bit. This has a great tone for that modern Sanborn type sound that so many alto players love. I play a few jazz lines on it also and it sounds great with those also…….just a little brighter to me. When listening to the clip try to imagine a little bit of reverb and effects on the sound. I recorded it with no effects to taint the sound but if I were playing this live on a gig I would be sure to have the soundman put some nice effects on this to sweeten it up even more.

Intonation:

Intonation was great with this mouthpiece and within normal limits. My Selmer Reference alto saxophone has a tendency to go sharper on middle D,Eb and E when I play high baffled mouthpieces and it was sharper on those notes. That’s not a big deal though as I am used to bringing those notes down in pitch anyways.

Control:

This was a very easy mouthpiece to play and control. It is very even sounding up and down the horn. The altissimo notes were much easier on this mouthpiece because of the higher baffle.

Volume:

Powerful! I could feel it when I blew in it. Even at a medium air flow it was LOUD! When I pushed it, it was even louder! I could push as much air as I wanted through this piece. I actually had to take a step back from the microphone because it was recording so “hot”.

Great job Aaron Drake! If you are curious about trying Aaron’s mouthpiece you can visit his website at www.DrakeMouthpieces.com for more information.

Theo Wanne Gaia 6 Hard Rubber Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

steve — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 02:55:05 +0000

This is another great mouthpiece by Theo Wanne. This is a Gaia 6 alto saxophone mouthpiece that came with a Macsax alto that I’m trying out (more on that later). This sax mouthpiece has a nice baffle in it as you can see from the pictures. The baffle slopes down into the chamber and is higher and longer than you would find on a Meyer type mouthpiece. The chamber of the mouthpiece is what is unique to so many of Theo Wanne’s mouthpieces. It’s pretty large. The baffle and side rail just expand outward for the large chamber size. Theo’s website advertises that his mouthpiece are unique in that they have “true” large chambers. That, plus the amazing craftsmanship is what makes these mouthpieces play so well.

This mouthpiece is no exception. It plays great. The higher baffle gives it a brighter sound but the bigger chamber gives the sound a robustness and depth to it that you don’t find on many high baffle mouthpieces. I really enjoyed this mouthpiece a ton. I’m thinking that this might be a keeper for me if it passes the 7 day test. (I have to still be really into it after 7 days). Here’s a link if you want to go to Theo’s website to check out more details on the Gaia alto saxophone mouthpiece. Let me know what you think……………

Gaia 6 Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

Appearance:

This mouthpiece looks perfect in every way. The side rails and tip rails are thin and perfect. The baffle is even and smooth and the chamber is smooth and large. The gold ring around the shank is a great addition and looks beautiful with the engraving on it. It came in a beautiful leather pouch with a gold enlightened ligature.

Tone:

I had a feeling this would be brighter because of the higher longer baffle. The large chamber balances out the brightness though. I really liked the tone of this mouthpiece. I could see doing a fusion type gig on it as well as some standards also. It plays like one of those mouthpieces that can do it all.

Intonation:

Intonation was very good on this piece and I had no problems playing it.

Control:

Easy mouthpiece to control from the bottom to the top of the horn. It was a breeze to play. Interestingly enough, my Selmer Reference alto gurgles on low C when I use a high baffled mouthpiece. That didn’t happen here. I think the larger chamber countered the baffle and low C was perfect. This was an easy mouthpiece to control. I found it very easy to manipulate the notes. With a size 3 Java reed it also had some nice resistance to it that allowed be to play with more expression and bend the notes easier.

Volume:

No problem with volume on this mouthpiece. It’s only a 6 which is a little small for me but it was plenty loud. I think a 7 or 8 would be even louder if that was what you wanted but I would be happy with this. I like the control and focus that the 6 gives me.

Great Job Theo!

Warburton Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

steve — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 17:09:13 +0000

This is a new Warburton alto saxophone mouthpiece. These are made by Eric Falcon who is a top notch mouthpiece refacer. This mouthpiece has an .080 tip opening. I consider it to have a brighter sound but still fat sounding. It’s a bit fatter sounding than the PT Meyer that I put up yesterday. There is tons of volume that I could get out of this mouthpiece. The altissimo was easy to get also. In this clip I am just playing around with a simple Bb blues and using a bunch of lines from my “Mastering the Dominant Bebop Scale ” book.

Warburton Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

Appearance:

The tip and rails of this mouthpiece are great. The arc of the tip is a little different than my Java reeds but it is very close. It makes no difference in playablity that I can notice. The chamber is nice, smooth and looks to be very symmetrical and balanced. The outside of the mouthpiece is beautiful and the gold band around the shank is a nice touch.

Tone:

Beautiful brighter tone. Very even up and down the horn . Easy to sub-tone down low. The notes have a nice focus to them but still have a nice round sound to them. The high notes had a tendency to get overly bright but once I got use to the piece it was easy to control. I could morph into a Sanborn type sound pretty easily up high if I wanted to.

Intonation:

Intonation was very good on this piece and I had no problems playing it..

Control:

Easy mouthpiece to control from the bottom to the top of the horn. At first I felt like the high end was getting away from me but once I fattened up my lower lip and took a little more mouthpiece the high notes were great. Easy piece to bend notes with.

Volume:

This mouthpiece had some great volume to it when I really blew. It got a tad brighter but never lost it’s fat sound. Down low it was very focused and I tended to want to sub-tone more down there to fatten it up a bit. It was easy to play from ppp-FFF.

Great Job Eric!

Meyer Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece Refaced by Phil Engleman

steve — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 01:33:22 +0000

This is a new Meyer medium chamber alto saxophone mouthpiece that is made by JJ Babbitt. If you have been an alto saxophone player for any length of time you will know the mouthpiece name “Meyer”. It is one of the most popular alto saxophone mouthpieces ever sold. When I was a kid, i remember going to the music store to get a Meyer because that was what all the best alto players were using. I had heard that Phil Woods played on one and then I went to a Jazz Festival and a group called the YellowJackets played. They had one of the best alto sax players I had ever heard. His name was Marc Russo and his altissimo playing was amazing. I remember wondering what mouthpiece he played and someone told me…………..a Meyer. That same year I went to a summer band camp and the sax teacher was this college kid from Eastman that sounded amazing. What did he play? A Meyer. That did it for me, I had to get a Meyer. Anyways, back to the music store. I remember trying probably 10 different Meyer mouthpieces at that store and I hated everyone of them. Some were stuffy, some I squeaked on, some were too bright sounding, some I couldn’t get a any volume out of. I remember leaving that store totally bummed out ( I ended up getting a Beechler soon after that and played that all through college)……………..

Phil Engleman Refaced Meyer 6

I never did run across a great Meyer alto mouthpiece but I’ve known tons of players through the years who have played them and sounded killer on them. Recently, Phil Engleman a mouthpiece refacer advertised that he was selling some stock Meyer that he would work on to make sure they played great. I took him up on his offer and bought a 6 & 7 from him.

The day I received the mouthpieces in the mail I was heading off to teach so I just put them in my bag. One of my first students plays a Meyer 5 that he has been having issues with so I had him try the Meyer 6 that I had just received from Phil. I have to say that the difference in sound was immediate. I was thinking “Wow” in my head when the student stopped playing and looked at the piece and said “Wow” also. His sound was fuller and rounder sounding. Nice and smooth sounding. His old Meyer was always sounding raspy and spitty sounding and this new piece sounded 100% better. He wanted to buy it right there but you have to remember that I hadn’t even played the mouthpiece yet so I said “No” and gave him Phil’s email address to get his mouthpiece worked on during the summer.

This clip is of the Meyer 6 from this story. It’s an easy mouthpiece to play with a brand new Vandoren Java 3 reed. I find the tone to be on the brighter side of the spectrum. The high end is a bright but still round sounding. The tone is incredibly easy to manipulate and shape. It reminds me a bit of my Aizen mouthpiece in the resistance it has. It feels easy to blow but it feels like you are blowing against something solid that makes the tone have a nice character to it. Also of note, is that I find the altissimo very easy to play on this mouthpiece. Much easier than some others I have played. The altissimo notes have a sweet sound to them that is beautiful sounding. I’m really diggin’ this piece for the time being and think I will hang on to it for awhile to see where it takes me.

Phil Engleman Refaced Meyer 6

Appearance:

The tip and rails of this mouthpiece are perfect. The chamber is nice, smooth and looks to be very symmetrical and balanced. When looking into the chamber from the table you can see a slight ridge where the chamber meets the bore but that doesn’t make any difference to the playablity of a mouthpiece.

Tone:

Beautiful balanced tone. A little bit on the brighter side with a Phil Woods kind of vibe to it. Easy to sub-tone down low. The notes have a nice focus to them but still have a nice round sound to them. The high notes have a pleasant singing type quality to them that I loved.

Intonation:

As perfect as it gets. I played it with a tuner and couldn’t ask for better.

Control:

To be honest, this was one of the highlights of this mouthpiece. It was amazingly easy to play. It had an even and smooth tone throughout the range that made it easy to play fast patterns and large intervals. Altissimo and the overtone series were very easy on this mouthpiece. Much easier than most of the mouthpieces I have played. Maybe it’s because of the smaller tip.

Volume:

Although I could get pretty loud, it wasn’t as loud as many other mouthpieces I have tried. I found that if I pushed the ligature back and took more mouthpiece to let the reed vibrate more it really improved the volume. I think it will get better as I get more comfortable on the smaller tip opening. (I mostly play .080 tip openings on alto.

Does Your Saxophone Equipment Matter?

steve — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:39:06 +0000

The ongoing debate in the saxophone community is whether equipment really matters. By equipment we mean the brand of saxophone, mouthpiece, ligature, reeds, neck, pads and resonators. Some people will even argue that the type of material, screws and resonance stones on the body of the sax make a difference. I’ve had students come in with electrical tape wrapped around the outside of the sax neck because it added more darkness to the sound. Does all this stuff even make a difference or is it all connected to our endless obsession to look outside of ourselves to find change? ( Whoa, that’s deep) For this post on my blog I thought I would take the opportunity to post a recording of a setup that is less than optimal for me. This is a typical setup that an elementary student would come in with……………

I’m playing on an Alpine alto saxophone. The saxophone has some obvious leaks in it but plays reasonably well nonetheless. I’m using a Yamaha 4C mouthpiece that has a few small chips in the tip, a standard Rico #3 reed and a standard no name metal ligature. In this clip I’m playing Charlie Parker’s solo on Yardbird Suite from the omnibook.

Listen to the clip and see if you can hear a difference between it and my other alto clips on the site. It is recorded in exactly the same way and I am trying really hard to play the solo to the best ability. As I was playing and then listening to the recording it was obvious to me that equipment does matter and have an affect on me. If it isn’t optimal then it can affect your sound quality, technique, creativity and even your mood. You need a horn and setup that helps you to achieve what the sound is that you imagine in your mind but the question always comes up………….when is the time to change gear or make that jump? I always tell my students that it is when you feel like you have taken you current gear as far as it will go. A fourth grade student in elementary school doesn’t need a Selmer Mark VI. Even if they jumped from a beat up Bundy to a Selmer there wouldn’t be that much of a difference if any because the student hasn’t learned the fundamentals of the horn and gone far on his musical path yet. Even adults will come in to take lessons and want to know what saxophone to upgrade to or what mouthpiece to get and many times I will tell them that they have more work to do on their current setup or horn. To drive home the point sometimes I will play their horn and mouthpiece just to show that I can get a good tone out of it and not squeek. If you are uncertain of your own situation it’s best to get an outside opinion from a reputable teacher.

In this clip I am struggling a bit with the ergonomics of the horn, the closed tip of the mouthpiece and even the sound and tone of the mouthpiece and horn. It has a very one dimensional and flat sound to my ears. I do believe that if I was on a desert island and this was the horn and setup that washed up on the beach I would do fine with it. I would practice like crazy and in the end hopefully get the sound out of it that I would want. That being said, I’m not on a desert island so I think I’ll stick to my Selmer. I’m sure you will form your own opinions about this clip and subject while you listen. I have had a number of people that have asked me to do a recording like this just to hear how I sound on average equipment so here you go. Anyways,…..let me know what you think.

Greg Wier GW 7M Alto Mouthpiece

steve — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 22:54:00 +0000

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………

Phil-Tone .078 Alto Mouthpiece

steve — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 22:46:50 +0000

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.

It reminds me of a Meyer type piece with more power to it. I’ve played piece like this before but I always felt like they were too bright. This Phil-tone mouthpiece isn’t in my opinion. Check out the recording and let me know what you think. Great job Phil. I’ll probably be ordering one soon. (Phil can be contacted at: sigmund451@hotmail.com ). Listen………

Early Babbit Alto Mouthpiece 7

steve — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 22:40:41 +0000

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.