The design of this mouthpiece has been modeled after the Otto Link Slant model, with a few modifications to help facilitate better stability of pitch and greater projection.  The floor slope has been raised and extended. Amazing warmth and depth to the tone with a great expressive range.  Featuring beautifully under cut walls and a chamber dimension larger than the shank diameter with a carefully contoured roll over baffle.

Drake Son of Slant Soprano Saxophone Mouthpiece

This mouthpiece has a .065 tip opening which is what I prefer on soprano.  It has a pretty large chamber in it.  Larger than most of the soprano mouthpiece I have tried.  The only mouthpiece I have tried with a bigger chamber was a Morgan 6LC mouthpiece that I tried once. The bigger chamber gives it a bigger fatter sound in my opinion.  Not bright at all, more on the dark side of things in my opinion.  At the same time it has a nice ring to the tone that I really enjoyed.  If I had to pick one word to sum up the sound of this mouthpiece it would be “sweet”.   Check out the Drake website for more info on this soprano mouthpiece.   Let me know what you think.    Steve

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.

From Left to Right: NY Jazz, Jazz,Contemporary

Drake Contemporary Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

Drake Jazz Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

Drake NY Jazz Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

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.

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.

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.

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.