I receive emails all the time asking me to review saxophone mouthpieces. Many of these emails are from individuals and companies all around the globe that I have never heard of before. In the early years of the site, I would say yes to every request but after twelve years, I’m a bit more picky about the sax mouthpieces I try. Usually, I have a few questions they have to answer first. Ex. How long have you been making saxophone mouthpieces? Do you play the saxophone? What models do you have and what are they based off of? Can you send me some pictures? etc……
A few months ago I received an email from Donghee Cho of D&S Saxophone Mouthpieces in South Korea asking if I would be willing to try some of his sax mouthpieces. I was a bit skeptical but when I asked for pics of his mouthpieces I received an email back with some pics that looked surprisingly similar to Guardala mouthpieces. I was curious……….
D&S Brecker III Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
Donghee answered my second question about how long he had been making mouthpieces with this response:
D&S Brecker III Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
I have to admit, I have had these mouthpieces sitting on my shelf since June. The reason I haven’t done a review sooner is that after doing some research, I realized that I couldn’t find D&S Saxophone Mouthpieces on the internet, they don’t have a website and they didn’t have a Facebook page. All I had was an email address and phone number. Since that time, Donghee now has a Facebook page although it is very minimal with just a bad picture of a list of his mouthpiece models on it. I don’t see any prices so I don’t even know how much these go for either.
Even though I don’t think D&S is optimally setup for modern internet consumers I thought it best to go ahead with the reviews. If they get more of a web presence in the future at least you would have heard of them and have some knowledge of Donghee Cho and his products.
D&S Brecker III Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
Donghee sent me five mouthpieces in a couple of different shipments. I have three metal tenor mouthpieces and two metal alto sax mouthpieces. The mouthpieces have high baffles in general. The mouthpiece I am reviewing today is the Brecker III and has a .110 tip opening.
The rails, tip and baffle all look great to the eye. The tip matches my Rigotti reeds nicely. It has a high baffle to it similar looking to a Guardala Super-King I tried years ago.
These saxophone mouthpieces all come in a plastic tube with a silver mouthpiece cap and ligature. The shape and size of the D&S Brecker III is very similar to the size of a typical Guardala sax mouthpiece. It even has a pink bite plate like the old original Guardalas used to have. I used a silver Selmer 402 metal alto ligature on it which is what I would use on a Guardala mouthpiece and it fit perfectly.
I emailed Donghee and asked him if these were exact replicas of guardala mouthpieces and he responded:
The one negative that I have with the similarity to the Guardala size is that the mouthpiece is a tiny bit narrower than a reed. I have experienced this in the past with some Guardala’s I have owned. A very small part of each side of the reed hangs over each side of the mouthpiece table. I’m not sure exactly why I don’t like this but in my mind it seems like the table should be equally as wide as the reed. I guess it is just a personal thing as the mouthpiece played well and got good suction on the suction test. It just felt a bit strange to me.
D&S Brecker III Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
I used a Rigotti Gold 2 1/2 Medium reed on the sample recording below which worked well with this .110 tip opening. The mouthpiece has a powerful bright core sound to it with edge when played at full throttle. I found it quite a bit brighter than the D&S Brecker II. Kind of like a 70’s Michael Brecker sound I think. Think 70’s Brecker Brothers……….
The intonation was good and I thought it was pretty even up and down the horn. The Brecker III has a lot more power, volume and brightness to it than I am used to. I turned the gain on the mic down to -20 and I think I still clipped out the mic at times. This is the kind of mouthpiece you want to be careful playing full throttle into a wall. I could easily see someone hurting their hearing that way. If we were to rank volume from 1-10 the D&S Brecker III goes to about 15……….
D&S Brecker III Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
I’ve provided two samples of the same clip below. One is a clip with added reverb and the other is a dry clip in a moderate sized room. I think it’s important to add the reverb clip just so people can get a sense of what the sound is like with a little bit of that added affect since the added reverb tends to soften the brightness and edge a little bit.
If you liked the D&S Brecker II or D&S Brecker III tenor saxophone mouthpiece reviewed here you can contact Donghee to order one by email at dssax.mouthpiece@gmail.com. By phone at +82-2-522-9841 or by his Facebook page. Thanks to Donghee Cho for creating these and letting me try them out…………
D&S Brecker III Tenor Sax Mouthpiece-Reverb Added
D&S Brecker III Tenor Sax Mouthpiece-Dry Recording
About Steve
Power.
Loving the Ralph Bowen and Coltrane stuff.
Compared to the previously reviewed MBII from the same company, which seems a little dull at the core and on the attack, this MBIII hit the mark better (sound-wise) at least to me, although the chamber design is a lot different from the original mpc and/or other Guardala’s imitations/inspired mpcs, quite an achievement, even though i guess it will have it’s rough edges to keep under control! You’re absolutely right about the year reference though, this MBIII really points to the 70’s while the MBII sounds like late 90’s and on. Intriguing… Maybe i’ll hit the guy to have a quotation… Thanks again for your beautiful job, much appreciated Steve. Cheers, Sam.