Steve Neff Music Blog » Tenor Mouthpiece Reviews

John Thomas Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece Review

steve — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:11:05 +0000

Here we have a John Thomas tenor saxophone mouthpiece. I actually played this about a year ago but the recording has been sitting on my computer since. I totally forgot about it until this morning when I read a thread on “Sax on the Web” asking about John Thomas and his mouthpiece work.

This mouthpiece is a .115 tip opening and is a bit larger than I usually prefer. It had a big robust sound to it that leaned towards the brighter side of the tonal spectrum in my opinion. Because of the larger tip opening, I found that I could blow tons of air through this mouthpiece. It is one of the louder mouthpieces i have played on my website. I didn’t feel totally comfortable with the larger tip so I put the recording in a file on my computer and forgot about it. I just listened to it this morning though and think you can get a good idea of the sound of the mouthpiece from it.

If you are interested in John’s mouthpieces you can contact him on his website. I hope in the future I can get a chance to try a .105-.110 tip which is more to my liking. Let me know what you think. Steve

Eric Falcon Custom Hard Rubber Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece

steve — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 20:25:53 +0000

Here is my review of a custom hard rubber tenor saxophone mouthpiece that Eric Falcon made. A friend of mine sent me this to try with 2 metal links as well. This is an example of a great hard rubber mouthpiece. I actually have played this mouthpiece for about a week now and love it a lot. (It hasn’t left me horn) It is the type of mouthpiece that sounds great on a laid back jazz gig but also has enough kick to it that you can push it into overdrive and get some nice volume on a funk or rock gig.

I emailed Eric and asked if I could order one myself. He just sent me two to try which I look forward to reviewing. The new mouthpieces are under the Warburton name. I will do a review and clip of those very soon. The recording of this mouthpiece is a great example if you want to hear the difference between HR and metal. This clip has a thicker fatter sound to it than many of my metal mouthpiece clips. That’s a sound that I love! Nice, thick and textured. When I go up high it sound nice and round just like I like my high notes to sound.

I don’t go into overdrive on this clip but I have a lot in the past week and it sounds great in that kind of setting also. This is a beautiful sounding mouthpiece. Great Job Eric…………….

Otto Link Super Tone Master Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece Refaced by Eric Falcon

steve — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 20:08:30 +0000

This is another Modern Otto Link Super Tone Master I received to try out. This one was originally a 7 tip (.100) but was refaced and oped up to a .110 by Eric Falcon. From what I understand Eric Falcon used to do mouthpiece work for Jody Espina of Jody Jazz. He now is refacing mouthpieces and also has his own line of HR mouthpieces that he makes at Warburton. ( I have an alto,soprano and 2 tenors sitting on my desk right now)

This otto link mouthpiece plays beautifully. This mouthpiece has a great jazz sound to it. Kind of that standard kind of link tone. Nice fat round sound that leans towards the darker side of the spectrum to me. It also has a bit of an airy texture to the tone that is really nice. Even though I am told this is a .110 it feels more like a .105 to me. Eric does great work and I’m looking forward to trying his Warburton mouthpieces shortly.

Modern STM Otto Link Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece Refaced by Brian Powell

steve — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 19:16:08 +0000

This is a modern Super Tone Master Otto Link tenor saxophone mouthpiece. Everyone knows that buying a modern metal Otto Link is pretty much a roll of the dice. I remember going to a music store and trying 10 of them and not liking any of them. Many times over the years I have stopped at different stores just to see what they had for Otto Link mouthpiece and I was almost always disappointed. Some of them were just horrible to play. I have had students come in with metal links that had crooked facings, uneven tips, and horribly uneven tables. Many of these mouthpieces were causing the students to really struggle for months if not years.

The best think you can do for a link like this is send it to get refaced. There are many great refacers out there. They measure your mouthpiece to see how it measures up and then fix it so that it plays as well as it can. This mouthpiece was refaced by Brian Powell who opened it up to a .115 from it’s original .095. A friend of mine sent it to me to see what I thought of it.

I have to say upfront that I think this is one of the loudest metal links I have ever played. This mouthpiece has some serious volume to it. It’s not that bright kind of loudness that a link with a baffle might have but more of a medium husky kind of volume. I think because of the .115 tip I could put a lot more air through it than my other .105 and .110 tips. It felt that way anyways.

I played this mouthpiece for a few hours and it felt really comfortable to play although I did notice that my embouchure was getting mighty tired by the end. I think I was subconsciously putting more pressure on the reed to push it closer to the tip of the mouthpiece so that it felt more like a .105-.110 tip to me. That can sometimes happen when you move to a bigger tip.

The mouthpiece has what I consider a brighter than average link sound to it but not overly bright. Like most mouthpieces with a bigger tip, it tends to have a bigger more spread sound to it that has a little more of a hollow quality to it. (As opposed to a smaller tip that to me has a more focused, compact and centered sound to it.) This was a great mouthpiece and I’m glad I had a chance to try it. I think I will still stick with my .105 tip openings though………..Let me know what you think.

Pete Thomas PPT Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece 7* Review

steve — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 16:25:43 +0000

This is a great mouthpiece from Pete Thomas over in the UK. I emailed him a few months ago because I was interested in trying one of his tenor mouthpieces. He was kind enough to send me this one. I’m not sure what it is made of but it looks pretty cool. It’s looks remind me of some of those white rocks you find on the beach sometimes.

I will say up front that this is a mouthpiece that really surprised me. As soon as I opened the package and looked at it I thought “I’m really not going to like this mouthpiece”. It has a pretty high and long baffle in it. Usually when I play a tenor mouthpiece with that high a baffle it is incredibly loud, bright and obnoxious. Sometimes, I also find them hard to keep in tune. I kept this mouthpiece sitting on my desk for about a week and just kept looking at it. I felt a bit scared to try it……………..

PPT Handmade Mouthpiece

This morning I drank a few cups of Java and thought “OK, it’s time to try it out.” I was very surprised. The first thing I noticed was that the tone wasn’t near as bright as I thought it would be. It was thick and powerful. Down low the notes seemed centered and round like I like them. I actually found it well balanced and quite beautiful sounding. It sounded great just laying back and playing some bebop lines on it. If I put some more air through it I could quickly get a funk/rock sound out of it.

The second thing that I noticed, was that I felt totally at ease with this mouthpiece. Many times, I have to play a mouthpiece for a few hours or sometimes a few days just to get use to it. This PPT mouthpiece, I only played for about 15 minutes and I felt very comfortable on it. The clips I posted below were after 15 minutes of playing and they came out pretty good I thought.

The first one is with my typical recording setup so you can hear how it sounds compared to my other mouthpiece trials. The second clip was recorded in my garage. I love playing brighter more powerful tenor mouthpieces in my garage because it gives the sound a natural reverb that I like. That’s my favorite place to practice.

Thanks to Pete Thomas for letting me try this mouthpiece. It was a real joy to play. If you want to find out more about them or even order one you can visit www.petethomas.co.uk

Normal Recording

Recorded in Garage with Natural Reverb

Drake Vintage Resin Jazz Tenor Mouthpiece

steve — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 13:19:03 +0000

This is a new tenor saxophone mouthpiece I received in the mail last week from Aaron Drake. Drake mouthpieces have been around for a number of years and Aaron is best known for his Ceramic mouthpieces which I have reviewed here before. Recently, he has updated his website www.DrakeMouthpieces.com and come out with a new line of mouthpieces made out of “vintage resin”. Aaron sent me 3 tenor mouthpieces to try:

VRJT – Jazz Tenor (passaround model)
SSJT – Son of Slant (medium chamber)
NYJT – NY Jazz tenor (prototype – unbanded)

This review is of the Jazz model tenor saxophone mouthpiece.

Jazz Model

If you look at the picture of the 3 mouthpieces above, the Jazz model tenor mouthpiece is the mouthpiece in the middle. The beak has a lower profile to it than the Son of Slant mouthpiece that I reviewed. The body of the mouthpiece is also a bit narrower and is similar to the size of his Ceramic mouthpieces. This mouthpiece seems to have a similar baffle and slightly smaller chamber than the Son of Slant mouthpiece.

This mouthpiece seemed like a cross between the NY Jazz and Son of Slant model. I liked that it was a bit darker than the NY model on the recording but it seemed to have a bit more punch and focus than the Son of Slant model. I decided to play a little of “My One and Only Love” for all 3 mouthpiece clips so you can compare the sounds of each. You can hear that it is a little brighter and more focused than the “Son of Slant” clip but not by a lot. I really felt more comfortable on the lower beak profile of this mouthpiece. I really like this sound clip the best of the 3 because for me it is a bit fatter sounding than the NY but more focused than the Slant model. I like a mix of fatness and focus in my tenor sound.

For me, all three mouthpiece were great and it is very hard to pick a winner because they each have unique qualities. As I write these reviews and listen to the sound clips I am even more confused about which one I would buy if I bought one…………. I think you could make any of them fit a variety of playing situations but if I was leaning more towards straight ahead playing I would go with the Son of Slant. If I was leaning more towards the Rock and R&B thing but with the ability to play some jazz I would go with the NY. If I wanted a mouthpiece in the middle that could hang on both sides and sound great I would probably go with the Jazz model. Great job Aaron on another great mouthpiece. Visit www.DrakeMouthpieces.com for more details and to order a Jazz model to try for yourself.

Drake Vintage Resin NY Jazz Tenor Mouthpiece

steve — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:54:39 +0000

This is a new mouthpiece I received in the mail last week from Aaron Drake. Drake mouthpieces have been around for a number of years and Aaron is best known for his Ceramic mouthpieces which I have reviewed here before. Recently, he has updated his website www.DrakeMouthpieces.com and come out with a new line of mouthpieces made out of “vintage resin”. Aaron sent me 3 mouthpieces to try:

VRJT – Jazz Tenor (passaround model)
SSJT – Son of Slant (medium chamber)
NYJT – NY Jazz tenor (prototype – unbanded)

This review is of the NY Jazz tenor mouthpiece.

NY Jazz

If you look at the picture of the 3 mouthpieces above, the NY Jazz tenor mouthpiece is the mouthpiece on the right without the gold band. The beak has a lower profile to it than the Son of Slant mouthpiece that I reviewed. The body of the mouthpiece is also a bit narrower and is similar to the size of his Ceramic mouthpieces. This mouthpiece seems to have a slightly higher baffle and smaller chamber than the Son of Slant mouthpiece.

To be honest, this was my favorite to play of the three mouthpieces. It just played effortlessly for me and if I blew harder it was very easy to take it into a loud, brighter R@B type sound. I like being able to do that on a gig. I decided to play a little of “My One and Only Love” for all 3 mouthpiece clips so you can compare the sounds of each. You can hear that it is quite a bit bright than the “Son of Slant” clip. I found it to be easier for me to bend the notes and express myself on this mouthpiece. I really felt more comfortable on the lower beak profile of this mouthpiece. I think if I could play it longer I have a feeling this piece would smoke on a gig! Great job Aaron on another great mouthpiece. Visit www.DrakeMouthpieces.com for more details and to order a NY Jazz to try for yourself.

Drake Vintage Resin Son of Slant Tenor Mouthpiece

steve — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:05:27 +0000

VRJT – Jazz Tenor (passaround model)
SSJT – Son of Slant (medium chamber)
NYJT – NY Jazz tenor (prototype – unbanded)

This is the review for the Son of Slant tenor saxophone mouthpiece.

Son of Slant

This first review is on the Son of Slant tenor mouthpiece. If you look at the picture of the 3 mouthpieces above, it is the mouthpiece on the left. You’ll notice that it is a bit bigger than the other two. The beak has a higher profile to it than the others also. The thickness of the mouthpiece is about the same as a link and I used my Marc Jean ligature on it. It does indeed have the feel of an Otto Link while I was playing it. The beak dimensions are very similar to my EB Otto Link and other hard rubber links I have played.

I really liked this mouthpiece. It had a nice thick sound to it that I loved. It had some beautiful brightness to it up top and was a joy to play. I like mouthpiece that have a bit of character to the sound. A distinctive sound to them. This Son of Slant mouthpiece reminded me of a few Freddie Gregory Mark II mouthpieces I use to own because of the thickness of the sound and it’s ability to play dark yet brighten up when pushed. I decided to play a little of “My One and Only Love” for all 3 mouthpiece clips so you can compare the sounds of each. Great job Aaron on another great mouthpiece. Visit www.DrakeMouthpieces.com for more details and to order a Son of Slant to try for yourself.

Selmer Long Shank Soloist Tenor Mouthpiece

steve — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 15:23:41 +0000

This is a Vintage Selmer Long Shank Soloist Tenor Mouthpiece that was originally a C*. This mouthpiece has been refaced to a .105 tip opening by Brian Powell. I have been wanting to try one of these ever since I tried a Selmer short shank soloist about a year ago. I loved the short shank soloist but the mouthpiece sat so far out on the edge of my cork when it was in tune that it seemed like it would fall off of my saxophone neck. The long shank model fixes that problem and gives me a very similar sound…………

As you can see from the pictures the chamber of this mouthpiece has a horseshoe shape to it. This chamber gives it a unique sound in my opinion. The baffle is quite low in comparison to other mouthpieces I have tried. Usually, the lower the baffle the darker the mouthpiece. These Soloists are unique in that the low baffle gives them a darker sound but the smaller horseshoe chamber gives them a focused and more powerful sound. More focused than a wide open otto link type chamber might give with a low baffle. It’s interesting to note the affect of the baffle and chamber combinations………..a higher baffle will speed up the air flow and make the mouthpiece brighter and louder but a smaller chamber will do this also by squeezing the air through a smaller hole. It’s very interesting to me because the brights of a smaller chamber are quite different then the brights of a raised baffle. Great players that play or have played soloists are Joe Henderson, Rich Perry, and Kenny Garrett on alto………….. Let me know what you think. Steve

Morgan MLL 8* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece

steve — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 16:55:16 +0000

This a Morgan MLL 8* tenor saxophone mouthpiece. This use to be a ML model but the owner of the piece sent it to Erik Greiffenhagen to have the chamber made larger so now it is a MLL model. The tip opening of this mouthpiece is an 8* which for a Morgan is a .105. With the larger chamber I have to admit that I like this mouthpiece even more than when it was an ML. It has a big sound and the mouthpiece feels like it is vibrating when I play it. You would think with the bigger chamber it would be less powerful and darker but it feels more powerful to me. The bottom range notes are just lush and full sounding with a nice crispness to them. There seems to be a husky full quality to the notes that I love. The upper range rings nicely and it plays very smoothly and evenly all over the horn.

I wish I could spend more time with this piece but I have to send it back to the owner. This would be a great all round mouthpiece for all styles of music. I could get pretty darn loud with it. I think I will have to order one of these………… Let me know what you think. Steve