This was a Meyer G with a 5 opening. It was way to small for my tastes. I sent it to Brian Powell to reface it and open it to a .076. It played nice before and had a lot of volume but it felt to closed for me. This was the first piece I had Brian Powell work on and his work is excellent! This piece plays great. Nice volume and tone. It’s also very easy to find a reed for it. I’m using a ligature I made out of a rovner I had lying around. I never really like the rovners on alto. I felt like they took to many of the highs out of the sound. I cut a small slit in the bottom of the fabric and stuck a plate from my Vandoren Optimum ligature into it. I really like the sound I get with this setup. I just sent Brian Powell two Early Babbitt links to put the same facing on. I can’t wait to get them back.
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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.
I have a Meyer 7M, sounds very good but, due to the lack of baffle (I think) it is hard to get altissimo notes. It seems this kind of mouthpiece is not made to that purpose. Am I right?
I use to a a 6M but I don’t remember the altissimo notes being a problem on it. I think it has more to do with the way you are voicing them than the mouthpiece.
Hi Steve, Do you still have the refaced Meyer G for sale? Can you tell me how it compares to Powell’s NYC alto piece? I play a Morgan/Powell Classical 6 most of the time and can create the similar desired tones as your clip but it is a real challenge to lip up/down to keep in tune (beyond long tone practise) and still be fun. As a side effect I find this piece gets real wet as a result, could be just from the resistance and what progressive stuffiness the wetness causes. Given your broad experience I’d appreciate any thoughts on this as well as the original inquirey. Thanks, hope your day has a good blow in it! Kevin
Yes, I do still have the Meyer G for sale. It’s a bit brighter than my Powell NYC piece. I’m not sure what you mean by really wet?
Thanks for the quick reply. With this discussion being a bit distant from the Meyer feel free to remove/edit from your blog. I apppreciate your time & thoughts.
By wet I mean within 1/2 hr the piece & neck are so full of condensation I have to disassemble & dry out, or play becomes near impossible. My mouth can be dry & my lips near splitting but my breath is still putting condensation in at a ridiculous rate. Only with this piece, yet until saturated the play & tone are all I desire & from my ear very similar to this Meyer. Putting chapstick in the piece helped moisture flow but now with the cooler tempertures it just doesn’t matter. My sense of it is rather than the vapor condensating lower in the horn for a normal pour out the bell, that the resistance & air volume needed to control this piece on my S80 II is such that I create the dynamics causing this rain cloud effect. A last dynamic is that the shank is so small that the cork won’t expand to hold anything larger. I was just hoping you were familiar with the Morgan Classical 6 in particular, or any other similar pieces that had the moisture issue. Or is this just me? Like some people are real acidic and wear out guitar strings quickly. I was hoping you’d say its common with a number of “xyz” style pieces due to chamber/baffle combinations but not this Meyer or the NYC piece. A last question. Is the Meyer a tight shank?
I can’t speak for the Morgan. I have had a few pieces before that had that “spitty” sound. the worst was a Jodyjazz ESP piece. It had a great sound but after playing it for a few minutes you could here this “spitty” bubbly type thing in the sound that would drive me nuts. I have no idea what caused it though. I always thought it had something to do with the baffle being too high in the front of the piece but have no idea why that would have that effect.
Hi Steve, have you ever played the Meyer G series on tenor? I’m currently using an excellent NY Meyer Bros that has been refaced by John Reilly. Very happy with it. I’m trying to find a back up mouthpiece that plays reasonably close to this one (knowing that I’ll probably have to have it refaced). The newer stock Meyers just aren’t the same as the older ones. I understand that the G series gets closer (longer roll-over baffle, for example). I couldn’t find any reviews on your blog for the tenor piece, but thought I’d ask. Thanks!
Hi Bill, I’ve never tried the Meyer G’s on tenor so I can’t speak about them. I did review one JVW refaced Meyer at one point but not the G yet. Steve
As far as I know the Meyer G is not available for tenor .
I actually think this is one of the best sounding mouthpieces on your website because so many of the others, even the expensive NY Meyer clones, are extremely bright. This Meyer G is dark, rich tone and it’s easy to hear that you enjoy playing it. Of course you are using a Rovner ligature which may contribute to the darker tone. Your Optimum ligature might be a better match. But I’ve listened to almost all of the mouthpiece demos and this Meyer G, the Ishimori Medium Chamber and the refaced Vandoren V16 stand out. Thanks.
Hi Steve,
As a fan of mpc refacing, I am curious if there is any info on the type of curve Brian Powell used on your Meyer?
Cheers,
Andy