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You are here: Home / Reviews / Mouthpiece Reviews / Soprano Mouthpiece Reviews / Drake Ceramic Small Chamber Soprano Mouthpiece

Drake Ceramic Small Chamber Soprano Mouthpiece

September 25, 2009 by Steve 4 Comments

This is a new Drake ceramic soprano mouthpiece that I am trying out. This piece has a .065 tip opening and a small chamber.  The mouthpiece plays with a nice  focused tone. Much more focused sounding than the Drake large chambered mouthpiece. If you listen to both clips you can hear the difference between a fatter more spread sound and a more focused direct sound.

I really liked this soprano mouthpiece a lot also. It has a more focused sound to it but I don’t hear it as being too bright or getting thin at all.  The intonation was great on it as well as the notes being even up and down the horn. I think the ceramic material gives a little bit more of a ring to the sound than you get from a hard rubber mouthpiece.

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Filed Under: Soprano Mouthpiece Reviews Tagged With: ceramic, drake mouthpiece, soprano

Steve

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.

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Comments

  1. Avatardave stambaugh says

    September 29, 2009 at 1:05 pm

    I just listened to a couple of clips of sop pieces, both of the Drakes and your Super Ses.

    My vote goes to the Drake small chamber. It’s the most enjoyable one to listen to for me. The large chamber one gets a little ‘ducky’, and the super is brighter with more of a buzzy nasal quality. It may seem louder when you’re behind it but the mike picks up the highs that you don’t get while you are playing. Just my 2 cents.

    Reply
  2. AvatarNick Martin says

    April 13, 2020 at 9:49 am

    So here we are more than a decade on, and I’ve just bought one of these in a 6 tip opening as new old shop stock. The model is called JS B which relates to the squeeze throat and medium chamber. It’s a monster with as much power as you want, lots of harmonics, very responsive and has great intonation. I use this with a small alto sized Versa Rovner ligature – the ceramic material bulks up the body of the piece albeit it’s light.

    On a modern horn such as the Yamaha that you play, Steve, seems there’s focus, purity but plenty of colouring too. On a vintage horn, such as my Conn New Wonder II, the sound feels broader, very full, and has the most fantastic, shimmering timbre. Tuning it accurately on the Conn is very manageable . Seems squeeze throats and smaller chambers with low or no baffles work much better on these vintage horns than large, straight through pieces with baffles.

    This is the most complex-sounding soprano mouthpiece I’ve ever tried or owned!

    Reply
    • SteveSteve says

      April 13, 2020 at 10:08 am

      That’s great to hear Nick! You’re review of it is so good that it makes me want to try one again! Haha! Steve

      Reply
  3. AvatarNick Martin says

    April 13, 2020 at 10:13 am

    Where the master leads… 🙂

    Reply

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