I have an Ishimori Woodstone hard rubber soprano sax mouthpiece to review and play for you today. I’m not sure what tip opening this mouthpiece is as I don’t see any number markings on the mouthpiece. It feels like it is around a .065 to me.
Ishimori Woodstone Hard Rubber Soprano Saxophone Mouthpiece
Over the past few months, I have heard of Ishimori Woodstone mouthpieces from a number of players on the web. They were all raving about how good these mouthpieces were which really peaked my curiosity. I had a problem though, when I searched around for these mouthpieces I couldn’t find them anywhere except for the Ishimori site in Japan and the whole site was in Japanese. (I am not fluent in Japanese) I gave up after that but then a month later I heard another player raving about them again. This time I decided to try contacting Ishimori directly through their website. I sent them an email asking about their mouthpieces and a few days later received a courteous response from Norikiyo Yaguchi who handles Overseas transactions for Mr. Ishimori. He was nice enough to send me 5 mouthpieces to review- 2 alto, 2 tenor and one soprano mouthpiece.
This soprano sax mouthpiece is another example of Ishimori’s beautiful work. It has a perfect looking facing curve and tip. The baffle slopes straight down to a small sized chamber. The chamber looks to be a similar size as my Selmer Super Session soprano mouthpiece (It also looks similar to a Lamberson FMaj7 I reviewed a few months ago) The hole at the end of the chamber is small like the Super Session but it opens up to a larger bore area where it slides on the cork of the soprano.
This is a great example of an easy to play soprano sax mouthpiece. The sound is crisp and brilliant. It reminds me of the sound I got from a Lamberson FMaj7 soprano mouthpiece I played and reviewed here a few months ago. The response is immediate when I was playing it. Usually, I have to play a soprano mouthpiece a bit to get used to it but this one was so easy to play that I just put it on and went for it.
Ishimori Woodstone Hard Rubber Soprano Saxophone Mouthpiece
I played on a Vandoren Java #3 soprano reed on the clip below. I tried a 3 1/2 at first but it was too hard and stiff for me. The 3 played great. The smaller chamber really focuses the sound to a laserbeam type focus. You can hear that each note as a strong core to it. The recording has some variances in tone but this is more because of recording the soprano from the bell more than an affect of the mouthpiece.
The intonation was also great as it has been on every Ishimori mouthpiece I have tried so far.
Every mouthpiece and reed that I have received from the Ishimori company has been perfect. They pay attention to the smallest details and it is obvious when you see and play their products. Believe it or not, I have played about 40 of their Woodstone reeds and haven’t found a bad one yet. They all played great right out of the box!
Let me know what you think in the comments below. If you have any questions feel free to post them also and I will be happy to answer them. Thanks, Steve
Ishimori Woodstone Hard Rubber Soprano Saxophone Mouthpiece
About Steve
Onde encontrar boquilhas ishimori sax soprano.
Marcelo, I don’t speak Spanish so hopefully you can read this. I’m not sure where to get the Ishimori soprano mouthpieces now. I used to get them from Sax-ccessories but now they are closed. Try doing a search for them and seeing if any retailors come up in your part of the world. Steve
i like the navarro sound, much ,more than this one;its even and soothing
in every entering and exit note of the phrase…
thanks for the sampling in comparison;because of your website,i am going to buy
the navarro soprano mouthpiece.
Roberto’s Winds in NYC sells Ishimori mouthpieces. I bought a tenor Ishimori mpc from Roberto and I love it.
says “Toki” on it. I have an ishimori and the designation is very hard to read…almost invisible. Get out a magnifying glass and have a look again and see if you can find a marking.