SaxZ Dave Sanborn Hard Rubber Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

Man, I wish I had this mouthpiece when I was a kid.  When I was in junior high school, one of the first alto players I listened to was David Sanborn.  I remember going to the library and getting the album “Voyeur”.  That was the first time I listened to Dave Sanborn.  It blew my mind because his sound was so different than the alto players I had listened to until then.   I remember trying to play along with him and copy his sound.  I spent many hours each day trying to get down his licks and sound.   I did get many of his licks down but his sound was always very elusive for me.  I knew nothing about mouthpieces back then and had no idea that there were different kinds.  I didn’t know that you could sound different by choosing another mouthpiece.  I actually remember going through a stage where I was playing a Caravan mouthpiece for classical auditions and I was still trying to get that Sanborn sound out of it.  That was rough! (this Caravan had one of the darkest tones) The reason I would have loved this mouthpiece is that it propels you into the neighborhood of  that raw Sanborn sound without too much effort.

SaxZ Dave Sanborn Hard Rubber Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

I feel like the “Sanborn” sound is more of an extreme sound tone wise.  It is very raw,bright,edgy and tough sounding.  It’s right in your face.  What Michael Brecker did for the tenor sound,  Sanborn did for the alto sound.  It’s not a middle of the road type of sound.  If you are going for  that type of sound you have to be bold and unapologetic about it.  You have to play with confidence!

Here are some words about the mouthpiece from SaxZ:

SaxZ Dave Sanborn Hard Rubber Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

The mouthpiece does indeed look to be a replica of a metal Dukoff mouthpiece.   The baffle is high and even and angles down into a medium small chamber.  The high baffle and smallish chamber are what speed up the air and give a brighter more powerful sound to the tone.  In comparison to the metal Dave Sanborn model I reviewed this seems to be a bit darker ,warmer and rounder sounding to me.  I’m listening to the clips side by side as I write this, and it sounds to me like the metal Dave Sanborn is quite a bit brighter and more “metallic” sounding.   For the sake of comparison I have also posted the metal mouthpieces sound clip below so you can hear them side by side.

Now,  there has been countless discussions on the effects of different materials on the saxophone sound.  Many people say that different mouthpiece materials have an effect on the tone.  Others argue that the material has no effect on the tone what-so-ever.  This review is a great example of two mouthpiece with the same tip opening and design that have different sounds and tones.   Whether this is from the material used, reeds used, or subtle differences in the design of the mouthpieces is up for debate.

SaxZ Dave Sanborn Hard Rubber Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

I really enjoyed playing these two mouthpieces.  If you are a fan of Dave Sanborn and would like to get a mouthpiece that will help you towards that sound concept I think these are great choices to consider.

“Sax-ccessories” in CA is carrying SaxZ mouthpieces and some other accessories. Brian at Sax-ccessories and Mitsu at SaxZ were kind enough to let me borrow this mouthpiece to review.  If you like the “Dave Sanborn SaxZ” sound visit his website and check one out for yourself! http://www.sax-ccessories.com/ .

Let me know what you think in the comments below. Thanks, Steve

SaxZ Dave Sanborn Hard Rubber Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

SaxZ David Sanborn Metal Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

MacSax FJIII Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece

If you look at the pictures here of the FJIII and compare them to the pictures of my Warburton LA tenor mouthpiece review (also made by Eric Falcon), you can see some similarities between the two mouthpiece designs.  Both have a similar body and long elongated window.  The baffles seem to be a similar length but if you look closely you can see that there are some differences.  The baffle in the FJIII is lower than the LA mouthpiece.  It also has a straight edge at the end of the baffle where the LA model has a little trench or pit.

Although, I loved the LA models volume and fatness, in the end I thought it was a bit too bright for what I’m looking for in a tenor mouthpiece.   I was very interested in trying the FJIII because it has the lower baffle which I knew would give it a darker sound.

MacSax FJIII Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece

Boy was I right,  the MacSax FJIII is a much darker mouthpiece than the Warburton LA model.  Besides how incredibly free blowing it is,  I didn’t find much in common with it and the LA.  I don’t know what Eric does with these mouthpiece to get them to blow so easily but they are incredibly freeblowing. Personally, I  like a bit of resistance when I play the sax so playing this mouthpiece was a bit of an adjustment for me.  It is an 8 (.110) tip opening.  Usually when I play .110 tips,  a 2 1/2 reed works great.  The first 2 1/2 I put on blew like a wet noodle.   There was nothing to it.  I tried a few other 2 1/2′s and experienced the same thing.  When I moved up to a 3 I expected it to be too hard but even the 3′s were too free blowing for me.  What I really wanted was a 3 1/2 but I didn’t have any so I had to make due with the Rigotti 3 that I played on this clip.  It was slightly harder than the others in the box and I thought it was a good match for this mouthpiece.

The tone of this mouthpiece is very dark in my opinion.  It does have a bit of kick and guts to it when you really blow but the overall tone is thick, rich and dark.  The response and intonation were good.  The volume was ok for me.  I couldn’t get as much as I would like but it was certainly enough to play a smokin’ jazz gig with.  The lack of brightness in the tone would make it hard to play a loud R&B or rock gig on this piece in my opinion.

The free blowing aspect of the mouthpiece was the hardest thing for me to wrestle with.  I feel like a certain bit of resistance lets me push against the sound and mold it easier.  In that way, I can be more expressive.  I did gain some resistance with the harder Rigotti 3 reed but still wasn’t feeling the resistance that I normally like when I play.  I would think that over time, I could get used to the way the mouthpiece blew and be able to adjust to it.

MacSax FJIII Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece

The mouthpiece comes with a neat looking Rovner Platinum ligature that looks cool and hip.  I’m not a big fan of ligatures that clamp on the outside edges of the reed.  This is what the Rovner did.  To me, it made the tone more hollow sounding.  When I put on the Rovner Eddie Daniels ligature the tone was much more centered and focused sounding for me.   This is just my opinion so you guys that think ligatures don’t matter can do what you want with this opinion.

Overall,  I believe this is a very good mouthpiece if you like free blowing and dark.  This would be an especially good choice for any of you who have tried the Warburton LA model but found it too bright for your tastes.  This has the same free blowing feel of the LA mouthpiece but is quite a bit darker and lusher sounding.  If your interested in trying one of these mouthpieces yourself, visit MacSax.com.  and talk to Eric Falcon yourself.  Thanks so much to Eric and MacSax for sending me this FJIII tenor mouthpiece to review.

MacSax FJIII Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece

Marmaduke Large Chamber Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece

This Marmaduke LC (Large Chamber) tenor saxophone mouthpiece looks great.  The tip and rails are thin and even. The tip matches the shape of my Vandoren reeds perfectly.  The mouthpiece has a slight rollover baffle. The chamber  looks to be similar in size to a hard rubber Otto Link size chamber.

Marmaduke Large Chamber Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece

The 7* (.105 tip opening) had a very rich complex sound to my ears.  In comparison to the normal Marmaduke mouthpiece in the review above,  I feel that this mouthpiece is a bit darker and richer in tone.  I played a Vandoren Java 2 1/2 reed on it and that reed was perfect for it. The intonation was normal and the response was clean and immediate.  The low end had a smokey round quality to the tone.  I had a lot of fun sub-toning on this mouthpiece.  I loved the rich low end.

Many times, with a large chambered piece you will gain a darker richer tone but lose a bit of volume and brightness from other mouthpieces that have a smaller chamber and/or higher baffle.  This mouthpiece had a nice full tone and volume  even with the larger chamber.  I don’t think I would choose it for a loud rock gig because of the darker tone but this would be a great mouthpiece to go out and play a burning jazz set with.

Marmaduke Large Chamber Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece

If your interested in trying one of these mouthpieces yourself, visit Marmaduke Mouthpieces and talk to Alex Miyatake yourself or you can also get them at Saxccessories.com.  Thanks so much to Alex for sending me this LC tenor mouthpiece to review.

Marmaduke Large Chamber Tenor Mouthpiece

Ishimori Woodstone 7* Hard Rubber Tenor Mouthpiece

Over the past few months, I have heard of Ishimori Woodstone mouthpieces from a number of players on the web. They were all raving about how good these mouthpieces were which really peaked my curiosity. I had a problem though, when I searched around for these mouthpieces I couldn’t find them anywhere except for the Ishimori site in Japan and the whole site was in Japanese. (I am not fluent in Japanese) I gave up after that but then a month later I heard another player raving about them again. This time I decided to try contacting Ishimori directly through their website. I sent them an email asking about their mouthpieces and a few days later received a courteous response from Norikiyo Yaguchi who handles Overseas transactions for Mr. Ishimori. He was nice enough to send me 5 mouthpieces to review- 2 alto, 2 tenor and one soprano mouthpiece.

This tenor sax mouthpiece is beautiful. It has a perfect looking facing curve and tip. The baffle is medium low and slopes down to a medium to large sized chamber. The shape of the baffle is similar to the classic Otto Link Slant Signature mouthpieces that play so great. The baffle slides smoothly and evenly down into the chamber and there’s not an edge or blemish anywhere. Absolutely perfect looking.

 The sound of this Ishimori 7* is dark and rich sounding to my ears. The tone seems to be more compact and thicker than the 8 I tried last week.   It has a sweetness to the sound that I really liked.  The subtone was beautiful sounding and was very easy to attain.  To me it has that dark rich sound that is a classic tenor sound. (Think Hank Mobley)  Compared to the .110 tip Ishimori I reviewed last week I felt like this .105 and a tighter more compact sound to it.  I also felt like it was a bit darker than the .110.  Now when I go back and listen to that clip I feel like the .110 has more of a spread and hollow sound compared to this .105.  Listen to both clips and I think you can hear what I’m talking about.

Ishimori Woodstone 7* Hard Rubber Tenor Mouthpiece

I used a Woodstone #2 1/2 reed on it which was perfect for this mouthpiece. As you listen to the clip below, I think you can hear the rich thick sound this piece has. This would be a perfect mouthpiece for those of you who like that “slant” link type sound and want to sound great on a jazz set.  It’s on the darker side of things but at the same time it is very rich sounding which I really loved.

The intonation was also great on this mouthpiece as it has been on every Ishimori mouthpiece I have tried so far.

Every mouthpiece and reed that I have received from the Ishimori company has been perfect. They pay attention to the smallest details and it is obvious when you see and play their products. Believe it or not, I have played about 40 of their Woodstone reeds and haven’t found a bad one yet. They all played great right out of the box!

“Sax-ccessories” in CA is carrying Ishimori reeds, mouthpieces and some other accessories. It is the only shop at present where people can buy the reeds and the mouthpieces in the U.S. http://www.sax-ccessories.com/ . If you like the clip below contact Sax-ccessories and give them a try.

Let me know what you think in the comments below. Thanks, Steve

Ishimori Woodstone 7* Hard Rubber Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece

Ishimori Woodstone Hard Rubber Soprano Saxophone Mouthpiece

Over the past few months, I have heard of Ishimori Woodstone mouthpieces from a number of players on the web. They were all raving about how good these mouthpieces were which really peaked my curiosity. I had a problem though, when I searched around for these mouthpieces I couldn’t find them anywhere except for the Ishimori site in Japan and the whole site was in Japanese. (I am not fluent in Japanese) I gave up after that but then a month later I heard another player raving about them again. This time I decided to try contacting Ishimori directly through their website. I sent them an email asking about their mouthpieces and a few days later received a courteous response from Norikiyo Yaguchi who handles Overseas transactions for Mr. Ishimori. He was nice enough to send me 5 mouthpieces to review- 2 alto, 2 tenor and one soprano mouthpiece.

This soprano sax mouthpiece is another  example of Ishimori’s beautiful work. It has a perfect looking facing curve and tip. The baffle  slopes straight down to a small sized chamber.  The chamber looks to be a similar size as my Selmer Super Session soprano mouthpiece (It also looks similar to a Lamberson FMaj7 I reviewed a few months ago)  The hole at the end of the chamber is small like the Super Session but it opens up to a larger bore area where it slides on the cork of the soprano.

 This is a great example of an easy to play soprano sax mouthpiece. The sound is crisp and brilliant.  It reminds me of the sound I got from a Lamberson FMaj7 soprano mouthpiece I played and reviewed here a  few months ago.  The response is immediate when I was playing it.  Usually, I have to play a soprano mouthpiece a bit to get used to it but this one was so easy to play that I just put it on and went for it.

Ishimori Woodstone Hard Rubber Soprano Saxophone Mouthpiece

I played on a Vandoren Java #3 soprano reed on the clip below.  I tried a 3 1/2 at first but it was too hard and stiff for me.  The 3 played great.  The smaller chamber really focuses the sound to a laserbeam type focus.   You can hear that each note as a strong core to it.  The recording has some variances in tone but this is more because of recording the soprano from the bell more than an affect of the mouthpiece.

The intonation was also great as it has been on every Ishimori mouthpiece I have tried so far.

Every mouthpiece and reed that I have received from the Ishimori company has been perfect. They pay attention to the smallest details and it is obvious when you see and play their products. Believe it or not, I have played about 40 of their Woodstone reeds and haven’t found a bad one yet. They all played great right out of the box!

“Sax-ccessories” in CA is carrying Ishimori reeds, mouthpieces and some other accessories. It is the only shop at present where people can buy the reeds and the mouthpieces in the U.S. http://www.sax-ccessories.com/ . If you like the clip below contact Sax-ccessories and give them a try.

Let me know what you think in the comments below.  If you have any questions feel free to post them also and I will be happy to answer them.   Thanks, Steve

Ishimori Woodstone Hard Rubber Soprano Saxophone Mouthpiece

Ishimori Woodstone Silver Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece

Over the past few months, I have heard of Ishimori Woodstone mouthpieces from a number of players on the web. They were all raving about how good these mouthpieces were which really peaked my curiosity. I had a problem though, when I searched around for these mouthpieces I couldn’t find them anywhere except for the Ishimori site in Japan and the whole site was in Japanese. (I am not fluent in Japanese) I gave up after that but then a month later I heard another player raving about them again. This time I decided to try contacting Ishimori directly through their website. I sent them an email asking about their mouthpieces and a few days later received a courteous response from Norikiyo Yaguchi who handles Overseas transactions for Mr. Ishimori. He was nice enough to send me 5 mouthpieces to review- 2 alto, 2 tenor and one soprano mouthpiece.

This tenor sax mouthpiece is beautiful. It has a perfect looking facing curve and tip. The baffle is high and slopes to a horseshoe shaped edge where it then slopes down into a medium to small chamber.  The shape of the baffle reminds me of some Guardala King and Super King mouthpieces I have tried in the past as well as some metal Berg Larsen mouthpieces.  It has a big black plastic bite plate that came with a mouthpiece patch on it for extra protection. The bore end of the mouthpiece is covered with black hard rubber that has a scroll type design on it that looks great. Underneath the black hard rubber end is the metal of the mouthpiece  (you can see it in the picture at the bottom of this page) so don’t worry, it won’t break on you.  I am told that they added the hard rubber to soften the sound a bit.

Before I even played this mouthpiece, I guessed that it would be loud and bright (Just look at that high and long baffle in there).  As with the alto mouthpiece, I was again surprised by how versatile this mouthpiece is.  It sounded great at low levels and with a subtone and wasn’t obnoxiously bright like some other pieces I have played.   This mouthpiece was not like one of those other pieces……… It had a medium bright powerful sound but it wasn’t overly bright to my ears.  It seemed to highlight the mid range spectrum of frequencies rather than the high end.  I wouldn’t say this mouthpiece is for everyone but if you are looking for a medium bright, loud and more focused modern tenor sound, this would be a great choice.

The mouthpiece came with a Woodstone #2 1/2 reed on it which was perfect for this mouthpiece.  As you listen to the clip below,  I think you can hear the focused sound this piece has. I was playing at a softer level at the beginning and you can hear how it would sound great playing a jazz set.  Later on I am blowing a bit harder and you have to trust me when I say that this mouthpiece can play pretty darn loud!  When you play softly or with a subtone it has a smokey type quality about it that is really nice.  I loved it’s sound on the ballad I started on.  When you really blow though this mouthpiece can knock some walls down!

Ishimori Woodstone  Silver Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece

I hope to have some more clips and reviews up in the next few days of the rest of the Ishimori mouthpieces I have so stay tuned for those. Every mouthpiece and reed that I have received from the Ishimori company has been perfect. They pay attention to the smallest details and it is obvious when you see and play their products. Believe it or not, I have played about 40 of their Woodstone reeds and haven’t found a bad one yet. They all played great right out of the box!

“Sax-ccessories” in CA is carrying Ishimori reeds, mouthpieces and some other accessories. It is the only shop at present where people can buy the reeds and the mouthpieces in the U.S. http://www.sax-ccessories.com/ . If you like the clip below contact Sax-ccessories and give them a try.

Let me know what you think in the comments below. Thanks, Steve

Ishimori Woodstone  Silver Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece

Ishimori Woodstone Super Custom Hard Rubber Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

Over the past few months I have heard of Ishimori Woodstone mouthpieces from a number of players on the web. They were all raving about how good these mouthpieces were which really peaked my curiosity. I had a problem though, when I searched around for these mouthpieces I couldn’t find them anywhere except for the Ishimori site in Japan and the whole site was in Japanese (I am not fluent in Japanese).  I gave up after that but then a month later I heard another player raving about them again.  This time I decided to try contacting Ishimori directly through their website. I sent them an email asking about their mouthpieces and a few days later received a courteous response from Norikiyo Yaguchi who handles Overseas transactions for Mr. Ishimori. He was nice enough to send me 5 mouthpieces to review- 2 alto, 2 tenor and one soprano mouthpiece.

The is a beautiful hard rubber mouthpiece.  It has a 6 tip opening.  I’m not exactly sure what that measures but it plays like is around a .072-.076 to me.   It has a perfect looking facing curve and tip. The baffle is medium and slopes down into the medium chamber.  If you look at the baffle from the front it looks to be curved on the sides.  Like the baffle is the bottom part of a circle if that helps. The sides of the baffle roll up smoothly into the curved sidewalls.  There’s not an edge or flaw anywhere inside the chamber.  Everything is smooth and silky.

I used the same Woodstone #3 reed that I played on the Woodstone  A11 review I did earlier and at first it was a little stiff to play.  After a few minutes though it really opened up and played fantastic for me. I’ve played two great New York Meyers in my life and I would say that this played very similar to those two I played.  It has a nice resistance to it while blowing.  The resistance is just enough to let you shape the sound and mold it.  I notice that I tend to bend notes and play more blues on mouthpieces with that perfect resistance.  I do that in the clip below.

I had trouble describing the sound as bright or dark.  It was sort of in the middle for me.  Kind of a Phil Woods and Art Pepper meets Cannonball kind of sound to it.  If I had to think of a modern player I would say Jesse Davis.  I guess where it takes you is up to your own personal sound.  I was left feeling like I needed to play it some more.  I thought it sounded killer as I played it but I had this feeling like there was a connection between the mouthpiece and I that could really take me to another place.  I felt very at home with this mouthpiece.  Very comfortable.  The first lick I play on the clip kills me.  I just love that sound.

The intonation was right on all over the horn.  The great thing I have noticed about the resistance I talked about earlier is that it allows me to play with the intonation much more easily.  For example, my middle E on my Selmer Reference Alto is very sharp. About 25-30 cents if I don’t adjust it. When a mouthpiece has some resistance to blow against then I find it easier to bring that note down into pitch when I need to.  All the other notes on the horn were close to perfect for me.

Ishimori Woodstone Super Custom Hard Rubber Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

I hope to have some more clips and reviews up in the next few days of the rest of the Ishimori mouthpieces I have so stay tuned for those. Every mouthpiece and reed that I have received from the Ishimori company has been perfect. They pay attention to the smallest details and it is obvious when you see and play their products.  Believe it or not, I have played about 40 of their Woodstone reeds and haven’t found a bad one yet. They all played great right out of the box!  That is certainly a testament to Ishimori’s quality control and customer service!

“Sax-ccessories” in CA is carrying Ishimori reeds, mouthpieces and some other accessories. It is the only shop at present where people can buy the reeds and the mouthpieces in the U.S.  http://www.sax-ccessories.com/  .  If you like the clips below contact Sax-ccessories and give them a try.

Let me know what you think in the comments below.  Thanks, Steve

Ishimori Woodstone Hard Rubber 6 Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

Ishimori Woodstone A11 Silver Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

Over the past few months I have heard of Ishimori Woodstone mouthpieces from a number of players on the web.  They were all raving about how good these mouthpieces were which really peaked my curiosity.  I had a problem though, when I searched around for these mouthpieces I couldn’t find them anywhere except for the Ishimori site in Japan and the whole site was in Japanese.  (I am not fluent in Japanese)  I gave up after that but then a month later I heard another player raving about them again.  This time I decided to try contacting Ishimori directly through their website.  I sent them an email asking about their mouthpieces and a few days later received a courteous response from Norikiyo Yaguchi who handles Overseas transactions for Mr. Ishimori.  He was  nice enough to send me 5 mouthpieces to review- 2 alto, 2 tenor and one soprano mouthpiece.  This is the first one I played because it was the first box I opened.

The mouthpiece is beautiful.  It has a perfect looking facing curve and tip.  The baffle is high and slopes to and even edge where it then slopes down into a medium to small chamber.  It has a big black plastic bite plate that came with a mouthpiece patch on it for extra protection.  The bore end of the mouthpiece is covered with black hard rubber that has a scroll type design on it that looks great.  Underneath the black hard rubber end is the metal of the mouthpiece so don’t worry, it won’t break on you.  I am told that they added the hard rubber to soften the sound a bit.

To be honest, when I first saw the baffle on this mouthpiece I made an assumption that I was going to hate it.  I have tried dozens of high baffle mouthpieces that have played horribly.  They would squeak and chirp and sound ridiculously bright.  I was thinking this would be the same with a baffle that high.  I was very surprised when I played it.  It had a brighter powerful sound but it wasn’t overly bright to my ears.  I actually really liked it.  It kind of reminded me of a Warren Hill type of sound.  Kind of a fatter Sanborn type alto sound. Not so bright that you couldn’t play straight ahead but I do think it is great for that smooth jazz kind of sound.  You can hear that I was leaning to that type of sound in the clips below.  I wouldn’t say this mouthpiece is for everyone but if you are looking for a brighter more focused modern alto sound this would be a good choice.

The mouthpiece came with a Woodstone #3 reed on it which was perfect for this mouthpiece.  The first clip has reverb on it.  I always review these high baffle pieces and talk about how they would sound killer with some reverb.  This time,  I thought I would add some just so you could hear what I’m talking about.  The recording is nothing fancy but I just recorded it with Garageband on my Mac.  The reverb is just the stock reverb that Garageband uses it doesn’t sound studio quality to me but you can get the idea.    The second clip is from the same recording but is totally dry.   I wanted to add a dry clip so you can compare it to the other mouthpiece review clips on my site which are all dry.   I had to edit both clips to shorten them to under 2 minutes so they are slightly different as I had to edit each one separately.  You can hear on the first clip how this mouthpiece could do well in a smooth jazz type of gig.

Ishimori Woodstone A11 Silver Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

I hope to have some more clips and reviews up in the next few days of the rest of the Ishimori mouthpieces I have so stay tuned for those.   Every mouthpiece and reed that I have received from the Ishimori company has been perfect.  They pay attention to the smallest details and it is obvious when you see and play their products.  Believe it or not, I have played about 40 of their Woodstone reeds and haven’t found a bad one yet.  They all played great right out of the box!

“Sax-ccessories” in CA is carrying Ishimori reeds, mouthpieces and some other accessories. It is the only shop at present where people can buy the reeds and the mouthpieces in the U.S.  http://www.sax-ccessories.com/  .  If you like the clips below contact Sax-ccessories and give them a try.

Let me know what you think in the comments below.   Thanks,   Steve

Ishimori Woodstone A11 Silver Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece with Reverb

Ishimori Woodstone A11 Silver Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece Dry-No Effects

“The story really begins with our initial conversation, in which Bird’s daughter Kim and I talked about the venture between RS Berkeley, Drake and Beverly Getz, while sharing stories about the influence her father had on my education and career. After a few conversations, Kim had expressed interest in the project and told me she had Bird’s white mouthpiece in her possession. She offered to host a face-to-face meeting with our team to discuss the project in greater detail and I accepted without hesitation.

With an amazing sense of accomplishment and excitement, I contacted my friend Tim Ries to discuss the magnitude of the situation. After all, Charlie Parker was an icon, personifying the conception of the jazz musician as an uncompromising artist. With Tim’s tireless dedication towards RS Berkeley, I felt it would be valuable to have him accompany us to the meeting. On the other hand, I knew Tim wouldn’t want to miss out on pursuing anything related to Bird.

A gracious host, Kim welcomed Aaron Drake of Drake Mouthpieces, Todd Feldman of RS Berkeley, RS Berkeley Endorser, Tim Ries and myself into her home on a snowy February day. As we sat and talked in Kim’s living room, she politely excused herself for a few minutes and came back stating, “I have something I want to show you.” With a red saxophone case in her hands, she carefully placed it on a coffee table that Bird had once owned. As my heart pounded, we opened the case and discovered Bird’s Super 20 King Alto Saxophone and white mouthpiece. As exhilarating as this was for me as a Charlie Parker fan, we examined every aspect of the case and its contents. We were intrigued to find a number of used reeds played by Bird himself, as well as two neck straps. Although one neck strap was damaged at some point, we were able to see where Bird repaired the strap, tying knots in key areas, providing himself with consistent and accurate horn placement. Considering Parker passed in the fifties, his saxophone and accessories were in meticulous condition. In what ended up becoming a historical event for us, we spent a good part of the day watching, listening and seeing personal Parker family treasures, including videos of Bird playing, a recording he made at the age of sixteen, personal interviews and family photos. One of the most exciting items we observed was an original portrait Bird painted himself. The painting, a portrait of Bird’s late daughter, Pree, was his interpretation of what he envisioned her to look like when she was older. As our five hour meeting came to end, we expressed our sincere appreciation to Kim for sharing her family’s history with us and for providing us with Bird’s white mouthpiece.”

Bird Legend Series Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

Les Silver had Aaron Drake of Drake Mouthpieces copy Bird’s mouthpiece as close as possible.  Les sent me 3 mouthpieces to try a 4* (.060), 5* (.070) and a 6* (.080).   The 4* is the copy of Charlie Parker’s mouthpiece.  The 5* and 6* are adjusted to have bigger tip openings.  I have heard that Charlie Parker had two white mouthpieces.  One was a Runyon 22 and the other was a Brilhart Streamline.   I’m not sure which this is a copy of.

The mouthpiece is white and looks great.  It has a medium baffle that slopes down into a small to medium size  squarish chamber.  The table, tip and rails look great on all three mouthpieces.

The coolest thing about these legend series mouthpieces is knowing that they are replica’s of the original.  I love to close my eyes and think of Parker while I played them.  It’s as close as I will ever get to being in a room with him and trying his mouthpiece.  Of course, that will never happen but I can still dream about it………………..

The sound of this mouthpiece is on the medium bright side and very focused.  The smaller chamber focuses the air and creates the focused tone.  I played the 4* first and I really felt like it pulled me toward that Parker type of bebop tone.  The focus and brightness of it really lets the accents pop right out which is one of the things that Parker was known for.  On both clips I go into a slower ballad type phrase and you can really hear how the tone just sings out.

When I played the 4* I had to use a Rigotti Gold 3 Medium reed.  To be honest, the reed felt a bit soft on it but I didn’t have any harder reeds on me.  When I tried the 5* the same 3 Medium reed was perfect. I loved the way the 4* and 5* played and responded for me.  The 5* had a thicker sound to me and the 4* had a clearer brighter sound to my ears.

Bird Legend Series Alto Sax Mouthpiece

On these sound clips I’m playing bits and pieces of some Charlie Parker tunes.  Ones a blues and I think I play a bit of Anthropology and Kim at times.

Bird Legend Series Alto Sax Mouthpiece 5*

Bird Legend Series Alto Sax Mouthpiece 4*

If you are interested in trying one of these mouthpieces,  here is a list of the Legend Series Dealers around the world.

United States

Ackerman’s Music – Wyckoff, New Jersey
Orlando’s Wind Instruments – El Monte, California
Pro Music Outlet – San Juan, Puerto Rico
Rayburn Music – Boston, Massachussetts
Sax Alley – Windsor, Colorado
Saxquest – St. Louis, Missouri
Tenor Madness – Waterloo, Iowa
USA Horn – Union, New Jersey
Viking Instruments – Circleville, New York

International

De Saxofoonwinkel – Deventer, Netherlands
Gakkido Inc. – Kochi-shi, Japan
Intrada – Kielce, Poland
Long & McQuade – Pickering, Ontario, Canada
Mariachi Saxophones Store – Moscow, Russia
Marmaduke Mouthpieces – Chiba, Japan
Musik Bruhin – Suhr, Switzerland
Saxophon Service – Berlin, Germany
Won Music – Ahnyang, Gyunggi, South Korea

Mark Spencer is a mouthpiece maker and refacer in Australia that made this mouthpiece especially for Bob Franceschini.  I  emailed Mark about it and he told me that he makes each mouthpiece unique for the specific player.  This one has a .118 tip opening and a high baffle that drops into a cavernous chamber.  Bob Franceschini likes the larger tip openings and needs to be able to wail on the type of gigs he does.

Mark Spencer Tenor Sax Mouthpiece

Here are some of the things that Mark Spencer said about this mouthpiece in our emails to one another:

“This one I made for Bob quite deliberately in the knowledge that he was in the Stern band, playing some heavy fusion and so of course it is fashioned to respond well in his hands in that context. You would find quite a different piece with Julien Wilson (I recommend 2007 “Trio: Live”) yet the tip opening is the same as is the chamber – Julien is full of subtones and subtle, colourful allusion. I’m not making excuses for the piece – in fact I was very happy with that piece for the context it was headed into, and it may well serve someone well outside of the original intended context, but it would only be fair to the listener/player to know that there is no single Mark Spencer mouthpiece.

I work everything by hand and along the way I play the piece a lot. The differences are quite subtle but I guess they help lead a player is the way I think about it. To say the baffle is just ‘higher’ or ‘lower’ is oversimplified as there is quite a lot that can be achieved in baffle shape. If you were to carefully measure even the one you have you would find that the baffle is nowhere near as high in relation to the reed as your eyes suggest – actually the difference between the highest point of the baffle and a regular early Babbit Link STM rollover is very little. The difference between the rollover of a link and the removal of some of that earlier rollover material, and the subsequent drop to a lower floor than the STM makes mine visually deceptive. There is no way you could get enough fat out of a truly high-baffled mouthpiece in my opinion. I started as a devotee of mid period Coltrane who wanted the additional punch that Turrentine had. There really isn’t any part of me that would be happy to sacrifice body and fat for the sake of loud. That said, some players who don’t use much throat in their technique do struggle to get a good sound out of my pieces. That’s another, longer, story. Some would dismiss Turrentine as bright. But I wouldn’t: “Live at Minton’s”; untouchable. Same goes for Julien’s “Club de Esquina”.

Those of you who know me, know that I don’t stray over a  .110 tip opening very often.  I was pretty nervous about buying this mouthpiece.  Originally Bob told me it was a 8* which was cool but then when I emailed Mark he thought it was a .123 which made me really nervous.  That was way too big of a tip compared to what I am used to. Later, Mark looked in his records and emailed me back that it was a .118.  This made me feel  better but I still had never played anything over .115 that I  liked so I was still apprehensive about it.

When I first received the Spencer mouthpiece,  I slapped a 2 1/2 reed on it that was on another mouthpiece and tried to play it.  It sounded awful!  Hard too play and all tubby sounding.  It felt like I was blowing into a cavern.  I quickly took that reed off and found a new one which was much better.  No tubbiness and easier to play.   After 15 minutes I was out of breath, feeling dizzy and my mouth hurt.  These are common symptoms that you experience when you jump to a large tip opening.  I had been playing a .105 tip so this was a pretty big jump.  I was ready to throw in the towel and try to sell it but then I decided to give it another day or two.

The next day I played the mouthpiece for a few hours.  Wouldn’t you know it, the mouthpiece felt and played great.  It didn’t feel that large after awhile.  My mouth wasn’t hurting and I wasn’t getting dizzy.  I loved it and told Bob I would be keeping it.

As you can see from the pictures, this mouthpiece is a beautiful work of art.   The one unique thing I have to point out is the baffle.  I have never seen a baffle like this before. It sort of reminds me of those water slides you go down at the water park.  It angles down and then scoops up and then back down again.  It finally terminates with a straight drop into a massive chamber.  If a mouthpiece has a high baffle I like seeing a pretty big chamber after it.  I’ve learned over the years that I like that combination.  I have no idea how this baffle shape affects the sound but this mouthpiece doesn’t play nearly as bright as I thought it would when I looked at the baffle.

The sound of this mouthpiece is huge!  The trick for me is putting enough air through it.  My 100% airstream on my .105 tipped mouthpieces feels like it’s about 60% on this one.  To get to 100% I really really have to blow.  When I do that the sound is huge and full.  It feels like the whole room is filled with sound.  I haven’t taken this mouthpiece on a gig yet but I think it would crank.  I still would like to spend a month playing it until I’m used to the bigger airstream to see what it can do and where it can go for me.  I have played this mouthpiece for two extended teaching days where I taught for 7 hours straight.  Basically, I’m playing much of the 7 hours demonstrating things for the students.  At the end of both days I couldn’t stop playing the Spencer mouthpiece.  I just kept playing it for another hour diggin’ the sound.  It’s like I got into a groove with it.

Mark Spencer Tenor Sax Mouthpiece

As you can hear on the sound clip below, this mouthpiece can get nice and bright when pushed.  It’s not a thin bright at all though.  It’s nice and fat sounding.  When I lay back, it can handle some straight ahead playing also and sounds killer for that.  The trick again for me is finding that new level of air support.  The more I play it  the closer I will get.  I would say that this is maybe one of the loudest mouthpieces that I have played to date.  I like the fact that it can be super loud but doesn’t lose it’s tone at all.

Some tricks that I have discover with this mouthpiece that help in playing a bigger tip are:

1.  Take slightly more mouthpiece and roll my bottom lip out a little bit more.  This lets more of the reed vibrate and it responds easier.

2.  Placing the ligature a little bit closer to the front of the reed seemed to make it easier to blow for me.  I’m pretty sure I’m not imagining this.

3.  The reed played best when it was exactly lined up with the tip of the mouthpiece. Too far back and it felt sluggish, too far ahead and it felt too hard to blow.  there is a magic spot right in the middle.

4.  Reeds last longer for me on a bigger tip.  A reed that would have died already on my .105 tip is lasting a couple of weeks on the .118.  It plays as good as when I put it on.

Take a listen to the Spencer sound clip below.   If your interested in a Spencer mouthpiece contact Mark Spencer through his website at http://ausax.110mb.com/ . Let me know what you think. Thanks, Steve