Today, I am excited to review a new mouthpiece made by Morgan Fry. Morgan Fry is a great mouthpiece maker and refacer in England. I have reviewed some of his mouthpieces in the past and had him do some refacing work for me and have always been impressed with his work and craftsmanship. If you do a search for Morgan Fry in the “search” bar on the top right of the site you can find some of his other mouthpieces I have reviewed. The mouthpiece I am reviewing today is the ebonite 6M alto saxophone model.
Morgan Fry Ebonite Alto Mouthpiece
The outside of the Morgan Fry Ebonite mouthpiece is very cool looking. It has a black and gold marble look to it with a beautiful silver band around the shank. MF is engraved in white on the top of the mouthpiece and 6M is stenciled in on the bottom of the table.
The rails of the mouthpiece look to be very even and the tip rail is symmetric and perfect looking to the eye. The baffle is what I would call a medium high baffle (between a medium and high baffle). It has straight side walls that scoop out to a medium sized chamber. The chamber looks very close in size to a Meyer medium chamber as I compare them side by side. As the baffle slopes down into the chamber it is not straight but has more of scooped shape as you can see in the pictures below.
Morgan Fry Ebonite Alto Mouthpiece
The Morgan Fry Ebonite alto mouthpiece was very easy to play and was extremely reed friendly. I used a Rigotti Gold 2 1/2 strong reed with a Vandoren Optimum ligature on the clip below.
Morgan Fry Ebonite Alto Mouthpiece
I found this alto mouthpiece to have a brighter focused tone. I found the tone reminded me of a brighter “Art Pepperish” kind of tone. Art’s tone was I think a little darker but there is something about the quality of the tone that reminded me of him. This mouthpiece would be a “killer” bebop sounding piece. It was very smooth and even through the range of the horn and it was easy to manipulate the tone and bend notes. I found that the response of this mouthpiece was immediate and allowed me to really express myself fully.
If you are looking for a brighter more cutting sound than a typical Meyer type mouthpiece, this would be a great choice. I could get loads of volume out of this piece and the intonation was excellent.
Morgan Fry Ebonite Alto Mouthpiece
The Morgan Fry Ebonite Alto Mouthpiece was great to play. I have had it for about a month and it hasn’t left my horn the whole time. If you like the sound of the clip below and the mouthpiece catches your interest then give it a try. You can contact Morgan Fry on his website at morganfrymouthpieces.com. Tell him Steve sent you………….
Let me know what you think in the comments below. Thanks, Steve
Morgan Fry Ebonite Alto Mouthpiece
Hi Steve,
great! This new “marble” version of Morgan’s HR piece looks outstanding! I have the older black model with a 7 tip opening and it never left my horn since I bought it many month ago and it’s going to be a long lasting love for me. It’s among the very best alto pieces on the market I think. BTW Morgan’s tenor HR mouthpiece is superb too…
Walter
Walt, Yes, this alto piece was amazing. I had it for about a month and every time students came in for a lesson they asked which piece I was playing. It’s a powerful piece that leans to the bright side of things but still cranks on the bebop stuff…………
Would you recommend this mouthpiece for smoothjazz/pop?