Today, I am reviewing my third hard rubber tenor saxophone mouthpiece from Ken Okutsu in Japan. It is the Traditional model and has a 7 tip opening which is .104. ( I call it a 7* tip in the recordings below because .104 is close to the traditional 7* size).   I already reviewed my first two Okutsu mouthpiece which were the High Baffle Model and the Tradition II Model.

Ken Okutsu Traditional Tenor Sax Mouthpiece

Here is the description and features from the Okutsu website:

Features

• Medium rollover baffle and large chamber
• The beautiful vintage sound.
• All mouthpieces are crafted by CNC machinery for incredible accuracy and finished by hand carefully.
• Concave Table. It makes the tone full and rich. The practical life span of reeds is lengthened.
• Material is the highest quality(hard rubber).

Ken Okutsu Traditional Tenor Sax Mouthpiece

The Okutsu mouthpieces are hard rubber and come in a protective plastic case.  Within the case they are wrapped in a black velvet bag.  I received three tenor mouthpieces and one alto mouthpiece from Mr. Okutsu.  The tenor mouthpieces are the Traditional model, the Traditional II model and the High Baffle model.  I kind of like how simplistic and straight forward the model names are.   The Traditional model looks to the darkest, then the Traditional II looks to have a slightly higher rollover baffle.  Finally, the High Baffle model has the highest baffle as the name implies.

The mouthpieces look good to my eye.  The hard rubber is shiny and without any imperfections. The gold engraving is neat and clean.  The rails, tip rail, table and baffle look very well crafted and even.

Ken Okutsu Traditional Tenor Sax Mouthpiece

The Traditional  model was very reed friendly to me.  I had no trouble trying different reeds on it and all the reeds passed the suction test when first put on and then later after playing awhile.  The Okutsu mouthpieces have a concave table which many player’s and mouthpiece manufactures have preferred over the years.  In recent years,  it seems like I am getting a lot of mouthpiece with flat tables instead of concave.  Now that I’m writing this review, I am curious  as to what the differences are  between the two table in regard to playability, response and sound……….In the Okutsu bullet points above, the Concave table is listed as making the tone full and rich and increasing the life of reeds………….Interesting!

Ken Okutsu Traditional Tenor Mouthpiece

I thought the Ken Okutsu Traditional tenor sax mouthpiece played great although after playing the Traditional II all day yesterday, the Traditional didn’t at first feel powerful to me.  That happens a lot to players that are used to a higher baffle mouthpiece, they try a lower baffled piece and it seems like it isn’t powerful or is dead. Many times the issue is that the player is used to a weaker and smaller airstream.  They didn’t have to blow as hard and as much with the higher baffle and became used to that air stream.  The solution is to spend time on the new mouthpiece to readajust to the air requirements of the new mouthpiece.  The Traditional mouthpiece became very powerful and full sounding as I played it for about half an hour.  (In fact, I just took a break from typing and played my tenor with the mouthpiece still on it and the sound is huge and powerful……now I can’t believe my first impression was that it had no power!)   I’m now used to the Traditional model and going back to the Traditional II or the High Baffle Model will be an adjustment for me probably.

Although this Tradition Model has a lower roll over baffle than the Traditional II I would still consider it a medium baffled mouthpiece.  You can see in the picture below how it still has a pretty substantial baffle to it.

The Okutsu Traditional model had a nice focused core to the sound like the Traditional II but it is slightly darker and more spread to my ears.   The low notes are fatter I think and high notes have less of that brassy ring I noticed in the Traditional II and High Baffle models.   I would say the tone was still in the middle of the dark to bright spectrum like the Traditional II but this mouthpiece leaned a little further to the dark side.  That being said, if I blew harder and made my bottom lip flatter and harder against the reed,  I could still get a nice bright edge from this mouthpiece when I wanted. Lay back a tad and soften up the bottom lip and it has a great vintage hard rubber Otto Link vibe to it.

One aspect I loved about all three Okutsu saxophone mouthpieces is their smooth buttery sound. Even though each mouthpiece could get brighter to varying degrees, I felt like the tone still had a soft edge to it that I really liked.  All three mouthpiece felt as smooth as “butter” when playing fast throughout the range of the horn.

Ken Okutsu Traditional Tenor Sax Mouthpiece

The Ken Okutsu Traditional Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece was great to play.  This is another great mouthpiece for players who want the best of both worlds.  It’s not as bright as the Okutsu High Baffle and Traditional II mouthpieces I reviewed earlier but it still has plenty of power when you blow hard.   I would suggest this mouthpiece to guys who love hard rubber and love playing jazz but maybe have to delve into the more pop stuff once in awhile.  If you play and even balance of pop and jazz you could go with the Traditional II and if you play mostly pop with not much jazz maybe the High Baffle model.  That is just my opinion though, if you like a brighter kind of jazz sound like Brecker playing a standard then I think the High Baffle model could get you in that ballpark also………….

Every time I review a bunch of mouthpiece from the same maker I always have some readers email me and ask “…..but which one is the best, or which is your favorite of the three?”  In this case I really can’t answer that question.  Seriously, when I first received the mouthpieces I played all three and immediately loved the High Baffle model.  When I was reviewing it I thought, this is my favorite of the three.  Then when I was reviewing the Traditional II model I thought the same thing.  Now today I played the Traditional and thought the exact same thing.  I would hate to be in a store trying to decide which of these to buy!!  I’d be in there for hours!!

If you like the sound of the clip below and the mouthpiece catches your interest then please contact Ken Okutsu and give it a try. You can contact Mr. Okutsu at his website at Okutsumouthpieces.com. Tell him Steve sent you………….Great work Mr. Okutsu!!

Let me know what you think in the comments below. Thanks, Steve

Ken Okutsu Traditional Tenor Sax Mouthpiece

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