A friend of mine on Facebook, Adrian Chia, posted these pictures of hardcopy Guardala mouthpiece brochures that he received from Dave Guardala in the mail back in 1990. Dave was living in Hicksville NY at the time and working out of his garage from what I have heard. If only I had a time machine…………… Thought some of you guys might like to see these as I had never seen them before. You can click on the photos to see them larger.
PS. If you have any other interesting information to go with this post let me know in the comment section below. Thanks, Steve
Guardala Tenor Sax Mouthpiece Model List
Guardala Alto & Soprano Sax Mouthpiece Model List
Guardala Mouthpiece Price List from the 90’s
About Steve
Hi Steve, here is a link to the Guardala site of a German saxophone store:
https://www.saxophon-service.de/homep/guardala.html
At the bottom, there is a description of the Guardala pieces from 1996.
And you´re right, looking at the prices asked for a time machine would be really nice!
All the best from Germany, Heiner.
I think this was later than when he was working from his garage. This is the EXACT description that was in the Woodwind and Brasswind catalogs, and the Branford Marsalis mouthpiece came out after that.
I visited with Dave at his work shop in a garage building behind the home on Long Island that I guess owned by his mother. I think I remember ihat DG introduced his mother in the kitchen before we went back to the garage shop in backyard…..It was a long time ago…..don’t remember the year, likely sometime between ‘75 and ‘85…..I remember that I play tested and bought a metal SELMER soprano mouthpiece that Dave had fitted with a plastic/hardened epoxy-like baffle……a material used by dentists….is what I’m remembering…..no longer possess the piece…..probably stayed less than an hour…..was unfamiliar with the area and was a long solo drive there and home…..in an old beater vehicle before cell phones/GPS……have used other Guardala pieces on my MarkVI and KEILWERTH over subsequent years…..was one and only time I was in DG’s company. He didn’t charge me all that much for the piece (because it was a modified SELMER…….Some years before that….I remember meeting Bobby DuKoff at (Ithink I’m remembering this correctly….) CRITERION STUDIO…..Ponpano, Fla.
I recently received Guardala studio 6 for alto saxophone from Nadir sax in the mail. I was very disappointed. the mouthpiece is difficult to control, all the time the sound broke. I requested a refund. now I’m waiting for the money to return. I was interested in the sound of guardala bebop, but now I’m afraid to order this expensive mouthpiece.
Try a Vigilante alto mouthpiece instead, made by the same person who spent countless hours working on original handmade Guardalas.
The Vigilante mouthpieces are extremely expensive though.
Welcome Steve,
I hope my contribution to the conversation about the first series, and, at the time, single series, of Guardala Tenor mouthpieces will be useful.
When the first series came out in the early 90s, and I was younger and stronger, here in Italy, many saxophonists rushed to buy the novelty; at the time there were still music shops in Rome and the Guardala were very expensive: I don’t remember well if the Michael Brecker was 500,000 or 650,000 lire; perhaps even 750,000 lire the David Liebmann; perhaps 350,000 lire the Crescent.
Of course, at the time, the prices quoted were a higher price than today’s correspondent because, at the time, in the 90s, salaries were much lower than now (I think that in Italy, until then, inflation was quite more galloping than it was in America) and the other existing mouthpieces cost, proportionally, much less than now.
At the time when the euro took over ten years later, one euro, in theory, I repeat, “in theory”, corresponded to 1936.27 lire but, I say in “theory” because, very soon, after a few months, if not days, in fact, “probably” due to the speculation of traders, in a chain, one euro actually corresponded to 1,000 lire: all workers on fixed salary, savers and pensioners they therefore had their income and savings halved.
After this economic and political digression, let’s go back to music.
The models known in Italy were essentially five: the Studio, the R&B King, the Crescent, the Michael Brecker and the David Liebmann.
The musicians, many professionals, in general almost all bought the Brecker, then the Liebmann and some the Crescent.
I remember professionals who also used very hard reed tip openig ratios which found them quite tiring to play; my teacher at the time had to give up the Brecker and switch to the Crescent which he found less tiring.
What I remember well, and which seems to me not to correspond to what is written in the leaflet you show, was that the most tiring to play was considered the Liebmann (in the leaflet it says suitable for musicians that prefer a smaller tip), then the Brecker and finally, the least tiring, the Crescent.
To hear it played by others, my absolute favorite was the Liebmann, as a sound.
This, at least, due to my personal experience limited to the environment in which I lived, in Rome.
I hope I was helpful.
Giuseppe.
I forgot to mention that, of course, the various mouthpiece models were produced in a single tip opening.
I remember that the tooth rest of the Brecker model for tenor was pink and that of the Liebmann’s model blue.
Giuseppe.
Hi Steve,
it’s strange: the first models for tenor sax by Guardala Liebmann, on sale in Rome in the 90s, which I saw with my own eyes, were with “blue” tooth rests.
On the internet I see for sale some “Liebmann” models used with the “pink” tooth rest … Maybe they are made to measure custom or later?
In any case, the Liebmanns I am talking about seem to have almost disappeared from circulation.
Giuseppe.
They must have been rare! I have never seen one with a blue tooth rest that I can recall. Steve
Some Italian professionals bought both the Brecker and the Liebman; who knows if they still have them?
I am sure that the ones I saw here in Rome had blue, light blue, tooth rests.
Of course you have never seen the Liebman, at that time you still had shorts … You are lucky enough to be younger.
However, it is strange that no copies of the Liebman model were produced, as happened for the other models, by any manufacturer, except for my mistakes.
Giuseppe.