This is a new mouthpiece I received in the mail last week from Aaron Drake. Drake mouthpieces have been around for a number of years and Aaron is best known for his Ceramic mouthpieces which I have reviewed here before. Recently, he has updated his website www.DrakeMouthpieces.com and come out with a new line of mouthpieces made out of “vintage resin”. Aaron sent me 3 mouthpieces to try:
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.
Hi Steve,
Are you sure you don´t want to keep it? You sound really good on it.
Hi how would you compare this one the the morgan fry original ebonite
Great vintage sound! It`s a very “tradishional”
Hi Steve, I had a very good day! I tried out the SOS Drake, and I was flabbergasted: it was such a pleasure to play it, instantly. Mind you, my The Martin will be revised in about a week, and I used an old reed;)! I had already seen a couple of your video lectures- great stuff!-but I forgot about the Drake- I intended to buy a Guardala- and now I see your review, also heard some other players on it. And then, on top of this, I succeeded in downloading your transcription of the Brecker licks. Feels like having my birthday!
All the best, many thanks, Ad
Ad, That’s great to hear. Thanks for sharing the good news. Steve
Hi Steve, was this a medium chamber or a large chamber one?
Hi Gerry, I don’t remember after all this time but above the photo it says “SSJT – Son of Slant (medium chamber)” so I guess it was the medium chamber. Steve
What about altissimo, how well does that fair on this piece, I have the same piece in a 7m tip opening with a medium chamber
Elijah, It has been about 10 years since I reviewed this mouthpiece but I don’t remember it having any issues for me with altissimo playing.
Hey Steve, I had one more question, is there any chance you’d do a review of the large chamber variant of this piece? I haven’t seen any reviews of it, and as much as I love my SOS 7m, I do want something a little darker. I figured the large chamber would do just the trick, but so far I really wanna read what you’d have to say about it too
Hi Elijah,
I didn’t even know there was a large chambered version! Maybe I will review it in the future but right now I have my hands full with the mouthpieces sitting on my desk waiting for review. If you happen to get one in the meantime, come back and let us know what you think of it.
That would be wonderful, I’ve also been looking into the Boston sax shop S series for alto
Hello Steve,
I own a.o. a Otto LInk STM Florida (100th anniversary) 7 with reed Fibracell 3 and a Aaron Drake 9L with reed Fibracell 2.5. I think it is difficult to make a choice. And I want to end up with just one (1) mpc. It makes me rather confused to compare mpc’s, reeds, and tenor saxes.
Both are a pleasure to play but they both have a beautifull but different sound.
What would be your choice?
Sorry, I really can’t decide for you as it is such a personal decision. Which one would you bring to a desert island if you could only play one for the rest of your life. Not an easy decision at all, believe me, I know. I have about 20 sax mouthpieces that I can’t decide between…… and more coming in to be reviewed every day. Hahaha!
Thank you very much for your reply Steve. However, I do not have the wish to live on a desert (uninhabitant?) island. No coffee drinks with my daughters then. And by the way, I did not ask you to decide for me but what would you choose for yourself if . . . . .. But I can see your problem as you have at least 20 mpc’s on which you cannot decide.
I keep on looking for the Holy Grail (and reading you reviews).
Unfortunately, I can’t really make a decision on what I would choose without playing the mouthpieces firsthand. I usually find 9 tip opening to be too large for me and 7 tip openings to be too small for me so I probably wouldn’t be happy with either of those tip openings in the long run…….
Thank you for your answer Steve. But, as you wil possibly know, the tip opening of the Drake is 9L (large) but according to the info of Aaron Drake it is really 0.115” = OL 8* = Vandoren T 95. I also do not like to play a mouthpiece with tip 9 (OL), but this Drake SOS plays very easy with a fibracell 2.5. Playing with a Fibracell 3.0 is also very possible but I found that a 2.5 gives a better result. I meanwhile look around to see if I can find a Drake SOS 7 of 8 with a large chamber, in order to compare the sound and ease of playability.
On the Otto Link Florida (100th anniversary) 7.0 I have the best result with a Fibracell 3.0.
I like to ad to my mail as follows.
I also play the alto with a Otto Link Early Babbitt 8.0 with a Fibracell 2.0. Here also I am looking around for a identical mpc, but with a 7 tip.