I received this on trial from another SOTW member. There was a thread on it that has since been closed where there was quite a bit of disagreement about this mouthpiece. I was intrigued and curious so when I saw one for sale I asked if I could try it. I have to say that I was very surprised by this piece.
It is a great tenor mouthpiece and in my opion plays just as advertised. GW advertises it on ebay as a copy of a slant signature otto link but with a little more power and projection. I don’t own a slant but I do have an Early Babbitt link that I have been told has the same body as the slants did. The Early Babbitt is one of my favorite tenor mouthpieces. I played the GW side by side with the EB and I have to say it was pretty close which is a great compliment because the Early Babbitt cranks. The GW Slant piece is a tad warmer and darker to my ears. It has a nice roudness to the tone that I enjoyed. It is not stuffy at all and plays very easily throughout the range up into the altissimo. It does have a nice singing quality to the high notes that I really like when I push it without getting bright which some mouthpieces do. I could see myself getting use to this piece and playing tons of standards on it. Beautiful sounding. The beak of it is a tad higher than my EB link buts that’s really not that big a deal to get use to. I don’t know GW but I think this is great work by him. Take a listen for yourself and you can decide. Listen………
About Steve
Just bought one… couldn’t resist it!! 🙂
After reviewing so many mouthpieces… can you tell me what your favourite hardrubber mouthpiece is?
No, not really. I’ve played so many great ones that it’s impossible to pick one that is the best and even if I did it would be different for every person. My favorites over the years were:
EB Otto Link 7*
Lamberson J7
Freddie Gregory 8*
SP Otto Link
The other HR pieces I’ve played were all very good and I could play any of them fine but the ones above had something a little special that I really dug! Good Luck on the search. steve
thanks for your reply!! I hope I will get the Greg Wier next week. I will tell you what my experience is…
I came back to this piece after quite a few months of playing my Master Link 8. I’m really impressed with how fat the upper register is and how much tone it has in the upper register. I do find it a little more cumbersome than my Morgan in the low register, but I think that’s just the degree of the slant of the beak. I asked Gregg to make it an 8 for me (.110) and it really does play well. I can put out plenty of sound and still retain a big round sound – doesn’t flatten out. I play LaVoz Med Soft reeds or Zonda 2.5 with my FL ultimate ligature. I’ve used a Marc Jean ligature on it too, but I think I like the FL better for this piece. I’m a mouthpiece junkie and I’m really pleased to find this piece again and work with it. I’ve been playing “My One and Only Love” over and over in different keys. If I could liken it’s sound to someone’s voice I’d say it makes me think of Johnny Hartman.
hi I’m looking for a decent mouth piece for my tenor sax with out breaking my pocket book
What’s your budget?
Try a Saxscape mouthpiece by Ken Barry. He sells prototypes on ebay and you can find them on SOTW. Great mouthpieces for a bargain.