Posts Tagged ‘Brian Powell’
Modern STM Otto Link Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece Refaced by Brian Powell
June 18th, 2010 | 
Author: 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.
Posted in Tenor Mouthpiece Reviews | 
Tags: Brian Powell, otto link, Super Tone Master, tenor saxophone | 
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Berg Larsen 110/2 Tenor Mouthpiece
This is a Berg Larsen hard rubber tenor mouthpiece I recently won on ebay. I saw that it was refaced by Brian Powell and I knew it had to be good. Sure enough it plays great. I thought it would be really bright but it has a big thick core to it that is nice. Thick is the best word for it. It can get very very loud too.This would be a great mouthpiece for an R&B gig.
Posted in Tenor Mouthpiece Reviews |
Tags: berg larsen, Brian Powell, tenor mouthpiece |
4 Comments »
Battle of the 3 Florida Link Tenor Mouthpieces
I thought I would put up a comparison clip of 3 metal STM Florida Otto Link tenor mouthpieces that I have. The first one is a Florida Link 7*(no USA) that was refaced by someone. If I had to bet money on it I would say it’s Theo Wannes work. It looks just like other Theo Wanne mouthpieces I have had and the tip rail has that characteristic thinness and curve that Theo puts on his pieces. It blows like it has a shorter facing to me. The other two are a 5 and a 8 that Brian Powell refaced to .105.
Posted in Tenor Mouthpiece Reviews |
Tags: Brian Powell, florida link, otto link, Tenor Mouthpiece Reviews, Theo Wanne |
6 Comments »
Early Babbitt Otto Link .110 Tenor Mouthpiece
This is the Early Babbitt Otto Link I have posted about before. The last SP otto link I got that Brian Powell had worked on was a .110 and I loved it. I t just felt like the tip opening was where I felt the most comfortable. I sent this Early Babbitt Otto Link (.105) back to Brian and asked him to change it to a .110. I was nervous because I really liked the piece and was afraid I was opening it too much. I got it back from Brian and it plays better than before for me. The .110 opening allows me to blow as much air as I have into this piece and get crazy volume. It’s got a HUGE sound!
Posted in Tenor Mouthpiece Reviews |
Tags: Brian Powell, early babbitt, otto link, tenor mouthpiece |
2 Comments »
SP Otto Link Tenor Mouthpiece
This is another SP otto link that Brian Powell refaced and brought the beak down on. I love these mouthpieces. They are not too dark, not too bright but can really blow when you lay into them. This is a .110 and is a little darker than the .107 Otto Link I had. I saw this one on ebay and made a low bid for a bit less than what I thought it was worth and won it to my surprise.
Posted in Tenor Mouthpiece Reviews |
Tags: Brian Powell, SP Otto Link, tenor mouthpiece |
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Brian Powell Refaced NY Link 7*
This is a NY link that I won off ebay that was advertised as worked on by Theo Wanne. I put my own baffle in it. There is an earlier clip of it on here if you look with a description. I sent it off to Brian Powell and asked him to clean up the facing. Before it played great but it had a stuffiness to it I didn’t like. I could tell the facing and response could be better. Brian did a great job. The piece plays effortlessly but still has that big fat link sound to it. I put 2 samples up. One is a more R@B type sound which this piece would be good at without being really bright which I don’t really like. I am very happy with this piece. Let me know what you think.
listen………..
Early Babbitt HR Otto Link 7* Tenor Mouthpiece
Holy Cow! This piece is great. I just got four pieces back today from Brian Powell. This is the Jon Van Wie refaced link that has a clip posted of it last year. This piece always played nice but didn’t have any guts to it. I really couldn’t dig in with it. I played another hard rubber link that Brian had done and I was so impressed I sent him this Jon Van Wie link. That’s a big gamble because Jon Van Wie isn’t around anymore and once a mouthpiece is changed there’s no going back. Man, am I happy though. Every piece I sent Brian I played today and everyone is killer compared to before. I mean before they were all good but now they play that much better. I’m sold on this guy. Brian Powell. I hate to post good things about him because I know the next time I send him a piece the wait will be even longer but he deserves it. The piece still has the beauty and ring it had but even more so! It has a great presence to it also. I can feel the sax vibrating under my fingers and the sound is huge. Let me know what you think. I can’t wait to play on it some more and get use to it.
listen…
Posted in Tenor Mouthpiece Reviews |
Tags: Brian Powell, early babbitt, tenor mouthpiece |
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Hard Rubber Otto Link 7* Tenor Mouthpiece
This mouthpiece is the best hard rubber link I’ve ever played. I won it off Ebay for 200.00 bucks. That was the opening bid and no one else bid on it. It’s a little confusing because the seller said it was a John Reilly reface but when I received the piece it had engraving on it that said “BP .107 #105″ I didn’t know what this was. I received some pieces back from Brian Powell and I noticed that he engraved them just like this which leads me to believe that Brian Powell refaced this. Maybe John refaced it later but from my experience playing Brian’s work I can’t believe someone would have it refaced again. I love the piece so much and am so impressed with it that I sent my JVW Early Babbit Link to him to reface. This piece has the classic link sound but has tons of power when pushed. You can really wail on this piece and it’s not picky about reeds at all. Any Java 2 1/2 works great on it. I emailed Brian and he said he did work on the piece and that it was one of those recent Otto Link pieces that is suppose to be a copy of the old ones. I do know that the slant of the beak is higher than on my Early Babbitt link. Let me know what you think.
listen…
Early Babbit Alto Mouthpiece 7
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.
Posted in Alto Mouthpiece Reviews |
Tags: alto mouthpiece, Brian Powell, Early Babbit |
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Hard Rubber Berg Larsen Alto Mouthpiece
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.
Posted in Alto Mouthpiece Reviews |
Tags: alto mouthpiece, berg larsen, Brian Powell, freddie gregory |
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