Steve Neff Music Blog » Soprano Mouthpiece Reviews

Warburton Soprano Saxophone Mouthpiece by Eric Falcon

steve — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:16:18 +0000

This is a Warburton soprano saxophone mouthpiece made by Eric Falcon. This is one of the best soprano mouthpieces I have had the pleasure of playing. It plays effortlessly and has a big fat soprano sound to it. The first day I played on it, I actually recorded a few lessons with it because I felt so comfortable on it. It has a .065 tip opening which is right around where I prefer. I use to use play mostly around a .070 but I noticed my embouchure would get tired after awhile. With the .065 I don’t have that problem. ………………

Warburton Soprano Mouthpiece

Appearance:

The tip and rails of this mouthpiece are perfect. The tip curve is slightly different than the shape of the Vandoren Java reeds I use but it makes no difference in the way it plays. The baffle looks to be slightly lower than my Selmer Super Session and the chamber slightly larger. It’s a little smaller than my other soprano mouthpiece on the outside and my Vandoren Optimum ligature wouldn’t fit on it. I had to use a LAW ligature that I had in my ligature box.

Tone:

It seems to have a fatter bigger sound to me than the other soprano mouthpiece I have tried. I think the bigger chamber allows this to happen. It is in no way a large chambered mouthpiece but it is slightly larger than others I have played.

Intonation:

Nothing stuck out intonation wise. It was good and within the normal spectrum for this Yamaha soprano.

Control:

This was a very easy mouthpiece to play and control. It is very even sounding up and down the horn.

Volume:

Volume was great on this mouthpiece also. It played soft to very loud easily. Up high I had to be careful that the high notes didn’t get to bright and higher volumes but that is normal for this soprano.

Morgan 6J Soprano Saxophone Mouthpiece

steve — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:50:12 +0000

This is an old Morgan 6J soprano mouthpiece that a student of mine let me borrow. These were made by the legendary Ralph Morgan. Ralph passed away in 2007 and it was a great loss to the saxophone world. I’ve told this story before but one time I had a Morgan mouthpiece that was refaced by Jon Van Wie. I was complaining that I wasn’t really digging it online and the next thing I know I get an email from Ralph asking to talk to me on the phone. I called him up and he talked to me about mouthpieces and the saxophone for what seemed like an hour. He offered to look at the piece and reface it for free if it needed it. It seemed like he knew the answer to every question I had and he really seemed to enjoy talking about the saxophone and mouthpieces. It was a great experience to be able to talk to him like that.

I really enjoyed playing this mouthpiece. The tone has a nice ring to it. From what I have heard the tip opening of this 6J is a .065. It is very easy to play with a Java 2 1/2 reed. This piece is a lot easier to play in the second register than my SS J. It seems like there is less resistance to it than the Super Session. Maybe it’s just the smaller tip opening. I haven’t seen many of these around lately so if you are lucky enough to stumble upon one give it a try. I’m fiddlin’ around with ”On the Sunny Side of the Street” on this clip. Let me know what you think. Steve

Drake Ceramic Small Chamber Soprano Mouthpiece

steve — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:42:08 +0000

This is a new Drake ceramic soprano mouthpiece that I am trying out. This piece has a .065 tip opening and a small chamber. The mouthpiece plays with a nice focused tone. Much more focused sounding than the Drake large chambered mouthpiece. If you listen to both clips you can hear the difference between a fatter more spread sound and a more focused direct sound.

I really liked this soprano mouthpiece a lot also. It has a more focused sound to it but I don’t hear it as being too bright or getting thin at all. The intonation was great on it as well as the notes being even up and down the horn. I think the ceramic material gives a little bit more of a ring to the sound than you get from a hard rubber mouthpiece.

Drake Ceramic Large Chamber Soprano Mouthpiece

steve — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:37:06 +0000

This is a another new Drake ceramic soprano mouthpiece that I am trying out. this piece has a .065 tip opening and a larger chamber in it than I have seen in other soprano mouthpieces. This mouthpiece plays with a big fat tone. Much more spread sounding than the Drake small chambered mouthpiece. If you listen to both clips you can hear the difference between a fatter more spread sound and a more focused direct sound.

I really liked this soprano mouthpiece a lot. It has a fat thick sound to it that I really enjoyed. The intonation was great on it as well as the notes being even up and down the horn. I think the ceramic material gives a little bit more of a ring to the sound than you get from a hard rubber mouthpiece.

Selmer Super Session J Soprano Saxophone Mouthpiece

steve — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 13:37:46 +0000

This is a sound clip of my main soprano saxophone mouthpiece for the last 6 years. It is a Selmer Super Session J mouthpiece that I bought from WWBW. At the time that I bought this, I also tried an I tip opening. I remember feeling like the I gave me a Kenny G type soprano sound (more of a pop kind of sound) and the J gave me more of a Coltrane type soprano sound. I went with the J after playing them for about a week. Up to this point in my life I have played very few soprano mouthpiece. Before the Super Session J I played on a Claude Lakey for about 16 years. The only reason I played on that was because it was the only soprano mouthpiece the store had. The Selmer Super Session was a much better mouthpiece for me compared to the Lakey.

The thing I really like about the Selmer Super Session is that it has that big hollow type soprano sound. I love it for jazz playing. It has loads of volume and doesn’t get too bright like my Lakey did. It is much more reed friendly than my Lakey was also. I still have my Lakey in a box so maybe I’ll put a clip of that up also. I’m not very experienced at trying soprano mouthpieces so I’m finding that it’s hard to make a call on what I think of the sound of a piece. On tenor and alto saxophone I can play for 10 seconds and know if I like a mouthpiece or not. On soprano, I don’t feel like my concept is shaoed enough that I know exactly what I like or don’t like. I’m sure as I try more mouthpieces that that sound concept will come into focus more clearly for me. Let me know what you think of the clip. I would appreciate any comments you might have. Steve