This is an old hard rubber Otto Link alto saxophone mouthpiece that was refaced by Freddie Gregory. When ever I see Freddie Gregory’s name on a mouthpiece, I have to take a look. I have played so many great mouthpieces and I know his incredible work firsthand. I just bought this alto saxophone mouthpiece and am still getting used to it. It’s a bit darker than I’m used to but plays great. I’m playing a Reference 54 alto saxophone. I use to play alto as my main saxophone back in college but now I play mostly the tenor saxophone and use the alto saxophone primarily for teaching.
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About Steve
Steve Neff has been playing and teaching saxophone and jazz improvisation around the New England area for over 30 years. He is the author of many best selling jazz improvisation methods as well as founding the popular jazz video lesson site Neffmusic.com.
Hey Steve,
You still use this piece? This is probably my favorite pieces I’ve heard you play on alto here. Thick sounding, but not tubby. Has that sort of Jesse Davis bebop vibe imo.
I’m trying to get a GW Meyer piece sent to John Reilly to sound more like this. You have any detailed pics or measurements of this piece? Please don’t go far into trying to help me though, as far as what I’ve seen you’re a real saint, but I don’t want to burden you. You’re a busy, good guy and I love the site. You seem to be quite active on it a of recent.
Nope. I sold this piece after having it refaced. It played great but I have to tell you that it was a major pain with reeds. It was just really really hard to find a good reed for it. After I had it refaced it played better and the reeds were better on it but I didn’t like it as much. That has happened to me with a handful of mouthpieces. The facing is a little bit off, or the table isn’t totally right and those things give you a distinctive sound and character that is unique. You get it refaced and it plays way better but then that special character in the sound you loved is gone. (although, the person I sold it to totally loved it………)