Today, I am reviewing a mouthpiece that is made by Alex Miyatake in Japan. Alex says that he has developed this mouthpiece with the help of Ron Coelho of RPC mouthpieces. These are brand new mouthpieces and I have never heard of them until now. The mouthpiece that I am playing today is a 7* that is a .105 tip opening. It has a long rollover baffle and scooped side walls. I would consider the chamber to be medium in size.
The beak of the mouthpiece has a low profile that I really like. It feels similar to my Lamberson J7 and is lower than hard rubber Otto Links . I usually prefer the lower profile beaks because they are more comfortable for me to play. The rubber has that vintage hard rubber smell to it. It looks and smells like great hard rubber to me. The tip and rails look about as perfect as you can get and the tip curve matched the Vandoren Java reeds I use perfectly.
The baffle on the mouthpiece looks medium high to me and travels for a little bit before it slopes down into the medium chamber. Usually, mouthpiece with a baffle this high will play too bright for my tastes but this wasn’t the case for this mouthpiece. I have been told that this mouthpiece has a 24mm facing curve which means that the curve travels for 24mm from the tip of the mouthpiece until it meets with the reed. Most of my mouthpieces have a 25mm length curve so this played a bit different for me than the 25mm curve mouthpiece. I have found that a slightly shorter curve usually make a softer reed feel a bit harder and the response is improved. Altissimo notes are a bit easier to hit and the high end sounds a bit brighter to me. I find a shorter facing curve to have a slightly less fat and full bottom end on the sax but this mouthpiece was cool down there and as you can hear on the clip the bottom end sounds great.
When I played the mouthpiece for the first time I found that my assumptions and finding with the facing length were justified. A 2 1/2 Java reed can usually feel a bit soft for me on a .105 tip but on this mouthpiece it felt perfect. Something about that shorter facing curve makes the 2 1/2 reed feel harder and perfect. I felt that it also had a quicker response than many mouthpieces I have tried. As soon as you blew the sound was right there filling the room. In my opinion this mouthpiece had a brighter sound to it that was very focused sounding. Very concentrated and compact sound. It sounded and felt like a dry sound to my ears. I’m not even sure what that means but when I played it and listened to the clip it sounded dry to me. Maybe you can hear what I’m talking about in the clip? Maybe not………………..The altissimo was much easier on this mouthpiece. It just popped out when you went for it and had this singing focused sound to it.. I hate it when mouthpiece makers say a mouthpiece makes the altissimo effortless because that is a bunch of hogwash but this mouthpieces makes it as easy as I have played I think. It’s probably because of that shorter facing curve.
Marmaduke Hard Rubber Tenor Sax Mouthpiece
Since these are a brand new mouthpiece, I’m not sure where you can purchase them. As soon as I get details I’ll post them on here. These are another great example of a new mouthpiece that is made well and has a great sound. If the sound clip I have posted is to your liking then do yourself a favor and give the Marmaduke mouthpieces a try. Steve
How would you compare this with Ron’s 105?
I don’t think I have ever reviewed Ron’s .105? I think I did play one 7-8 years ago but I can’t remember too much about it.
VERY nice sound, Could you comment on the resistance factor a bit more ?
I assume the medium chamber will make it quite free blowing but I’m not sure if the shorter facing is “undoing” this a bit ?
It does have some resistance for me but that is what makes the 2 1/2 reed play so well. I actually don’t like mouthpieces that are too free blowing..
Actually as I have had a day to think about it…………. The little bit of resistance is countered by the immediate response the reed gives when you blow. The resistance isn’t in the articulation at all which is fast and crisp. It’s more in the sound. I find that little bit of resistance is good to shape and change the sound. It’s like it gives you something to blow against.
I got me a marmaduke from Alex now and played it on a gig , I felt comfortable on it right away, it blended well with the other horns. The resistance is indeed no problem at all, and I really like the fast response.
Judging by the smiles of the bandleader/ other members after I played a solo they like the sound as well as I do. Truly a great piece !