Today, I am reviewing another alto saxophone mouthpiece that is made by Alex Miyatake in Japan. I have reviewed two of his Marmaduke alto mouthpieces in the past but this one I’m reviewing today is a new version that has had some modification made to it from the older versions. This alto mouthpieces is brand new and I am excited to try it out. It has a .078 tip opening (6). The chamber looks very close to the size of a medium Meyer size chamber. Unfortunately, I don’t have the old alto mouthpieces any longer so you will have to listen to the sound clips to see if you hear any differences between them.
Marmaduke Hard Rubber Alto Sax Mouthpiece
These Marmaduke alto saxophone mouthpieces look great. The tip and rails are thin and even. The tip matches the shape of my reeds perfectly. I used a Rigotti Gold 3 reed on this clip and the mouthpiece played great with that reed. The mouthpiece has a slight rollover baffle. The chamber is about the size of a medium Meyer chamber to my eyes.
Marmaduke Hard Rubber Alto Sax Mouthpiece
This Marmaduke 6 had a nice crisp brightness to the sound. Even though the notes were bright, the tone was thick and fat in my opinion. It reminded me of that vintage “Meyer” type brightness and power. A nice compact powerful tone. The tone was flexible and very easy to manipulate. It felt like it had the perfect amount of resistance for me which I find makes a mouthpiece more expressive.
The intonation was right on and the mouthpiece was very easy to play right out of the box. The high notes have a great ring and vibrant sound to them that I loved.
The vibe I was getting from this mouthpiece is a “Phil Woods” type sound on the album Warm Woods. I’m not saying I picked it up and sounded exactly like that but the tone reminded me of that album for some reason………(I loved that album when I was in high school!)
Marmaduke Hard Rubber Alto Sax Mouthpiece
If your interested in trying one of these mouthpieces yourself, visit Marmaduke Mouthpieces and talk to Alex Miyatake yourself for more information.
Marmaduke HR .078 Alto Mouthpiece
Sounds amazing, Steve. This sounds like something I would love to have in my arsenal. I love this fat sound combined with some brightness. I have some great alto mouthpieces thanks to you. I can never settle on a favorite alto mouthpiece. You might not have demonstrated all the exact mouthpieces I have, but you led me to them.
I think my favorite alto mouthpiece to play on gigs that require different styles is the 10mfan Showboat… this piece plays everything from beautiful jazz ballads to loud funk.
Your demo of the Drake NY Jazz alto piece led me to the NY Jazz Brass Resonance. My favorite recordings of myself have been with this Drake mouthpiece. It has the most beautiful alto sound and plays softly more beautifully than the Showboat.
The Lakshmi is my favorite metal alto mouthpiece I’ve ever played. I did a recording with the 10mfan Nova mouthpiece that I am very proud of… this one is similar to this Marmaduke piece, but I think the high notes on this Marmaduke sounds easier to control from the way you played it.
You also helped me with tenor and soprano pieces, but I settled on favorite pieces with soprano and tenor. On soprano, I love the Gaia 4 soprano piece… my warm sounding P Mauriat System 76II soprano. For people with brighter sounding soprano saxes, I always recommend the Drake Son of Slant piece… that is the warmest sounding soprano mouthpiece I’ve ever played and it’s much better than the Otto Link soprano piece.
On tenor my favorite pieces are the Lakshmi metal and the Les Becs d’Autan Florida piece. I can play any style on the Lakshmi and for soft jazz I love the Les Becs d’Autan piece.
On bari, I now love using Otto Link metal STM… I flattened the table (myself) on two of these to make them play better. The only thing I trust myself to do with mouthpiece modifications are flattening the table and a little work on the lower part of the rails. I don’t like to work on the upper part of the mouthpiece, because I’ve ruined some mouthpieces when I attempt to work on the upper part. Thanks again for helping me find my favorite mouthpieces.