10mFan Fireball Octagon Series Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece Review

Today, I am reviewing an exciting new alto saxophone mouthpiece from 10mFan saxophone mouthpieces that is designed with a new innovative octagon shaped chamber by 3-D technology.  This is the 10mFan Fireball 6 alto saxophone mouthpiece.   I have already reviewed a number of great 10mFan tenor, alto and soprano saxophone hard rubber mouthpieces in the past that you can find here.

10mFan Fireball Octagon Series Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

This will be the first 10mFan mouthpiece I am reviewing that is made with this new 3-D technology so I am very curious to see what Mark Sepinuck at 10mFan came up with in regard to this new Octagon Series Fireball alto saxophone mouthpiece.

Whenever Mark Sepinuck, at 10mFan mouthpieces, comes out with a new saxophone mouthpiece model, I am always really excited to try it out because all of his saxophone mouthpieces that I have tried have been great!  Mark is always thinking about how he can meet the needs of the sax playing community with new, uniquely designed and original saxophone mouthpieces and this new 10mFan Octagon Series of mouthpieces is no exception to Mark’s standard for using innovative and original designs for each of his saxophone mouthpieces.

Mark sent me a 10mFan Fireball 6 & 7 alto saxophone mouthpiece and a 10mFan Cabernet 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece to try out.  The mouthpieces came well packaged in sturdy cardboard tubes to protect them during shipping.  This review is of the 10mFan Fireball 6 alto saxophone mouthpiece. (I have not tried the 7 tip opening as of yet)

10mFan Fireball Octagon Series Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

The first surprise about these mouthpieces as I unpacked them was how solid and weighty they are.  Many of the other 3-D mouthpieces I have tried have been very light in weight compared to hard rubber mouthpieces of the same size and shape but these new 10mFan Octagon Series mouthpieces felt as solid and weighty as a hard rubber mouthpiece to me.

Here’s a description of the new 10mFan Octagon Series saxophone mouthpieces from the 10mFan website:

“The most revolutionary and proprietary saxophone mouthpiece chamber design in the marketplace!   If you know anything about mouthpiece design, most of the magic happens at the chamber!!!

That’s why all of my German barstock 10MFAN hard rubber mouthpieces play different than any of the vintage mouthpieces. They don’t blow like a Link or a Berg or a Meyer or any other mouthpiece, because of the internal designs, including the chambers. They may not appear super different to you, to your eye, but there’s a lot going on there. ?…. and that’s why the pieces sound and blow like 10MFAN mouthpieces, and NOTHING else.

I wanted to take that further with these 3-D printed pieces, and actually do a super unique chamber design with a totally different shape, size, and  added “chamber panels”, that have never been attempted before in the mouthpiece world.

These are mouthpieces using state of the art 3-D technology and design. These are not done on cheap home machines.  These mouthpieces have real weight (they actually weigh more than my hard rubber mouthpieces), a truly unique octagon chamber with “chamber panels” all around on the inside of the chamber, and are 100% infill, so they are stable. This proprietary design concept has never been done in the mouthpiece world, and it continues to carry on with my 10MFAN design commitment to innovation over imitation.

10mFan Fireball Octagon Series Saxophone Mouthpiece Chamber Shape (mouthpiece cut in half to show chamber)

I have tried many different shapes with the chambers and the octagon chamber was a dream come true. Those of us who got to try these designs here with both a normal round chamber and octagon chamber felt the same exact way too. The octagon chamber with “chamber panels” sounded phenomenal with added clarity and speed. The totally unique chamber and chamber panels give the throat a squeeze like nothing else in the marketplace, ever before.  The combination of the sound bouncing off of the “chamber panels”, how the air interacts with the chamber, the size and shape of the chamber, the totally unique “squeeze” throat using 3-D technology has allowed me to make this internal design.

I design mouthpieces and I know when something plays great and when the designs work great…..and these two mouthpieces both play great and the designs work fantastic!!!!-Mark Sepinuck

The 10mFan Supernova is available in 4 tip openings:

5 – .072
6 – .078
7 – .084
8 – .090

10mFan Fireball Octagon Series Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

Here’s a more specific description of the Fireball alto saxophone mouthpiece from the 10mFan website:

“This mouthpiece is a ton of fun to play. It’s a great lead alto mouthpiece, but it also can be sweet and go from very soft to nice and loud! It’s got a real classic vintage alto sound and I’m extremely proud of it.

It’s got a low rollover baffle and straight side walls, and my octagon chamber with chamber panels.  I love the throat squeeze in this mouthpiece. I wanted the player to be able to fill up the mouthpiece how they wanted, and I’m really going to focus on rollover baffles with the Octagon Series Mouthpieces.   The feedback so far has been incredible. 

The 10mFan Octagon Series Fireball alto sax mouthpiece is an absolutely killer alto mouthpiece for the modern player!   The vintage alto guys will go crazy for this mouthpiece, because it is a great alto mouthpiece with a low baffle that has that classic alto sound… but with extra punch, and brights available, and great altissimo. It is focused and not intended to be a fatter, more spread sounding alto piece.  The sound of this mouthpiece will go straight in front of you right to the back of the room!

For those of you on Meyer or Link style alto mouthpieces, who want more focus and power, you will love how this Fireball alto mouthpiece plays. It’s got a ton of depth and color, a rock-solid core, and it stays incredibly stable and balanced even as you push it to the extremes.  It’s so much fun to play!”-Mark Sepinuck

10mFan Fireball Octagon Series Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

The new 10mFan Fireball alto sax mouthpiece has the traditional three rings on the shank that all of the 10mFan saxophone mouthpieces have.  It also has “10mFan” and “Octagon Series” engraved on the top of the mouthpiece.  On the bottom corners of the mouthpiece next to the table is engraved “Fireball” on one corner and “6” on the other corner.

The mouthpiece looks great and right up to the normal everyday 10mFan standards of excellence.  From day one, Mark Sepinuck has been very serious about producing top of the line saxophone mouthpieces of the highest standards.  Even though this Fireball alto sax mouthpiece is made with a new 3-D technology, the Fireball still holds up to the standards that matter in regard to the way the mouthpiece plays.  The table, rails, tip and baffle area all look perfectly balanced, even and precise.  In fact, these mouthpieces, like the 10mFan hard rubber mouthpieces, are all finished by the expert mouthpiece refacers, Brian Powell and Erik Greiffenhagen.

The table, rails and tip rail look as good as any hard rubber mouthpiece I have seen and the surface area of these areas are as smooth and precise as a hard rubber mouthpiece.  The baffle is glossy smooth for the first 1/4 inch of baffle and then there is some texture to the material from that point of the baffle down into the chamber of the mouthpiece.  Mark address this fact in his description of the mouthpiece where he writes:

“The tables are flat, and the rails are symmetrical and measure properly. The baffles are hand worked so that the pieces play their best. We do not remove all the 3-D lines on the inside floor of the mouthpiece because there is no need to remove more material, when the pieces play perfect after they are hand finished. (To continue to grind the floor makes no sense, so we don’t do that).”-Mark Sepinuck

10mFan Fireball Octagon Series Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

The 10mFan Fireball alto saxophone mouthpiece is what I would consider a low baffle mouthpiece with a nice rollover to the baffle in that first 1/4 inch.  After the rollover, the baffle then continues at an angle down to the rear of the mouthpiece chamber where it levels out.

The sidewalls on either side of the baffle feel scooped out when I touch them with my fingers. Even though the sidewalls feel like they have a slight scoop to them, the sidewalls travel inwards as they approach the octagon chamber and give the mouthpiece a “squeezed throat” as Mark describes above.

The chamber of the 10mFan Fireball is indeed an Octagon shape having eight sides to the chamber.  This is indeed original and unique to the mouthpiece world as I have never seen a mouthpiece with this octagon shaped chamber before.

The octagon shape to the chamber area stops where it meets the round bore of the mouthpiece.  Obviously, this is necessary for the 10mFan Octagon Series Fireball alto sax mouthpiece to fit onto a round cork.

10mFan Fireball Octagon Series Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

The 10mFan Fireball alto sax mouthpiece played great with a Rigotti Gold 3 Light alto saxophone reed on it. One of the best attributes to the 10mFan line of saxophone mouthpieces are the precise facing curves used on each mouthpiece.  Mark uses the best mouthpiece craftsman in the business to fine tune every mouthpiece and make sure the facing curves are perfect.  A perfectly balanced and even facing curve allows more reeds to play consistently and favorably and that was my experience with the Fireball alto saxophone mouthpiece.

*As a side note,  I want to write how impressed I am with Mark’s commitment to excellence.  He could have just chosen to mass produce these 3-D mouthpieces and sell them as is to the masses for a cheaper price point without any hand work.  But instead, he is sticking with his business model of sending every mouthpiece to Brian Powell and Erik Greiffenhagen to have them put the finishing touches on each mouthpiece and to make sure the areas that matter the most in relation to playing are fine tuned and as perfect as can be.

10mFan Fireball Octagon Series Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

The Fireball alto saxophone mouthpiece has a beautiful and natural alto saxophone tone that I really loved.  I found it to have a tone that could be sweet, light and focused at softer volumes and more intense and focused at louder volumes.  The tone is not what I would describe as “fat” or “spread” but more focused sounding.

I loved how the 10mFan Fireball sounded over bebop lines with jazz articulation.  At the 1:30 mark in the first recording, I play a little of “Kim No. 1” from the Charlie Parker Omnibook.   At first, I play it at a slower tempo and I love how there is an evenness to the tone throughout the range of the saxophone while also having a crispness and accent to the articulation that just makes the line more interesting and compelling to me.

Right afterward, I play the same line at a much faster speed and again, I love the even smoothness of the flowing notes while still having that crispness to the accented notes even at a faster tempo.  I think it is this quality to the lines that really make this a great sounding jazz mouthpiece.

I found the high notes on the Fireball to have that beautiful singing quality to them that I sometimes mention in my reviews.  I’m not even sure how to describe this quality other than to write that the high notes have a certain beautiful resonance to them that stands out to me and that I love.

Besides this beautiful resonance, there is a perfect balance of healthy resistance to the 10mFan Fireball that allows the player to really fine tune the vibrato and expression that can be applied to the tone of the Fireball.  I absolutely loved how responsive the tone felt for vibrato and bends as I played the Fireball alto mouthpiece.

10mFan Fireball Octagon Chamber Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

At the 3:05 mark of the first recording as well as the second recording, I add a bit of a bluesy style to the lines I am playing by adding some bends, growls and vibrato that I think sound great. As more volume is added, the tone of the Fireball gets a little bit fatter but doesn’t get too spread sounding because it still keeps that consistent focus to the tone.

The low notes were nice and round sounding on the recording and sounded beautiful and fat with some sub-tone added to those notes.

The intonation on the Fireball was terrific and the pitch felt locked in and stable on my Selmer Reference 54 alto saxophone.

For the second clip, I posted a short clip with reverb added to it so you can hear what the 10mFan Fireball alto saxophone mouthpiece might sound like with reverb added.  This is actually very close to how it sounds if I played it in my garage, basement or bathroom.  I love how the Fireball sounds with the reverb, but it sounds just as good on the first sound clip with no effects in my opinion.

10mFan Fireball Octagon Series Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece

If you like the sound and look of the 10mfan Octagon Series Fireball alto saxophone mouthpiece, you can order one of them from Mark Sepinuck at 10mFan.com.  I think this is a great alto saxophone mouthpiece choice for those of you who want an authentic bebop sound in the style of Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt, Art Pepper, Phil Woods and even some Paul Desmond when leaning in that direction.

Even though I think this is a killer alto mouthpiece for bebop playing, it is also more versatile than just being pigeon-holed for that one genre of music.  This is a great sounding mouthpiece for more modern music as well and a great choice for students as well as professional players.

If you have any questions about the Fireball model alto sax mouthpiece or any of the other 10mFan mouthpieces, you can also contact Mark Sepinuck through his website. Mark Sepinuck is a treasure trove of information about saxophone mouthpieces and is quite happy to answer any questions you might have about them.

*If you have played or end up playing a 10mFan Fireball alto saxophone mouthpiece or have any other thoughts or comments about this review, I would love to hear what you think in the comment section below this review.  Thanks,  Steve

*To hear the most detail from these clips it is best to listen to them from a computer with nice audio speakers or headphones rather than from an iPhone or laptop speakers.  It makes a world of difference!

10mFan Fireball Octagon Series Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece-Rigotti Gold 3 Light Reed-No Effects

10mFan Fireball Octagon Series Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece-Rigotti Gold 3 Light Reed-Reverb Added