{"id":102808,"date":"2021-01-30T10:22:13","date_gmt":"2021-01-30T15:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/?p=102808"},"modified":"2025-12-12T10:51:56","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T15:51:56","slug":"boston-sax-shop-s-series-7-tenor-saxophone-mouthpiece-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/boston-sax-shop-s-series-7-tenor-saxophone-mouthpiece-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Boston Sax Shop S-Series 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, I am excited to be reviewing the new BSS (Boston Sax Shop) S-Series 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece released by Jack Tyler at the Boston Sax Shop<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jack Tyler is the owner of Boston Sax Shop and has been my saxophone repairman for the last seven years. I usually head down to Boston about once a year (way overdue now because of Covid) for Jack to check out my tenor sax and while he is giving my sax a tune up, he always gives me the inside scoop on all the saxophone world gossip as well as new saxophone gear that is coming out.<\/p>\n

Besides being a phenomenal repairman and craftsman, Jack is always up to some saxophone related endeavor.\u00a0 Whether it be straps, cases, ligatures, saxophone necks, reed cases, reeds, masterclasses, etc\u2026.. Jack always seems like he has a new project on the horizon\u2026\u2026When I heard of this new BSS S-Series 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece he was developing, I had to try one out myself!<\/p>\n

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Boston Sax Shop S-Series 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Boston Sax Shop S-Series 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece is described by Jack as being a reference to the great “horseshoe” chamber tenor sax mouthpieces of the past, but made for the modern player. A horseshoe chamber refers to a chamber that looks a bit like a tunnel as you drive through a mountain when you look at it from the bore end of the mouthpiece.\u00a0 The bottom is flat, the sides are flat but the roof of the chamber is curved like a horseshoe.<\/p>\n

Jack Tyler told me that the S-Series is based off of his personal favorite Selmer Soloist tenor saxophone mouthpiece.\u00a0 According to Jack, the problem with refaced Selmer Soloists,\u00a0 is that you never know what you are going to get after it is worked on.\u00a0 Jack and I do agree on that point, as we have both played refaced Selmer Soloists and some have been really bright, some have been super dark, some have been really stuffy and dead, while others might have luckily ended up great. It all depends on who you had work on it,\u00a0 their level of expertise in working on a Soloist tenor sax mouthpiece and their own personal sound preferences.<\/p>\n

In response to these observations, Jack decided that it would be a great idea to create the Boston Sax Shop S-Series tenor saxophone mouthpiece. The BSS S-Series represents all of the qualities that a great Soloist tenor sax mouthpiece can have in a more modern offering and tip size.<\/p>\n

The most popular “horseshoe” chamber tenor saxophone mouthpiece in history is the Selmer Soloist which were first made in 1956.\u00a0 The Soloist only\u00a0 came in tip openings of B* to H according Theo Wanne’s mouthpiece museum website.\u00a0 According to Theo, the E was similar to a modern day 5 tip opening and the largest tip opening of an H was similar to a 7*.\u00a0 Here is an interesting quote from Theo Wanne’s\u00a0 Selmer history page<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“The Selmer \u201cSoloist\u201d short shank hard rubber models came in sizes from B* to H.\u00a0 For reference an \u201cE\u201d is equivalent to an Otto Link 5, and an H is equivalent to an Otto Link 7*.\u00a0 The Selmer mouthpieces from B* to E all came with a medium length lay (the distance from the tip of the mouthpiece to the point where the reed meets the facing).\u00a0 The larger sizes F, G, and H only came with a SHORT length lay.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Hence all the larger tip openings had a shorter lay than the smaller tip openings.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>This was an attempt to make them easier to play.\u00a0 However, the bottom end of the horn suffered tremendously because of this.”-Theo Wanne<\/em><\/p>\n

Obviously, Theo’s last sentence above does not sound good!\u00a0 No one wants the bottom end of their saxophone to “suffer tremendously”!\u00a0 You needn’t worry about this with the BSS-S Series because Jack has made the facing curve length of the S-Series mouthpiece to be 52 (26 mm) which is considered a long curve.\u00a0 The long facing curve of the S-Series tenor mouthpiece allows\u00a0 more of the reed to be freed up and helps the low end of the saxophone to speak more easily and with a thick, robust tone.<\/p>\n

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Boston Sax Shop S-Series 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

The most notable players that that I can think of that have used a Soloist tenor saxophone mouthpiece for most of their careers are Joe Henderson, Eddie Harris and Rich Perry.\u00a0 I have heard that Sonny Rollins might have used one on “The Bridge” recording and “What’s New” and John Coltrane used one on “John Coltrane Quartet Plays”.<\/p>\n

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John Coltrane Playing a Selmer Soloist<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Eddie Harris Playing a Selmer Soloist<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Joe Henderson Playing a Selmer Soloist<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here is how Jack Tyler describes the Boston Sax Shop S-Series 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece on his website at BostonSaxShop.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve been very lucky in my life to enjoy some incredible classic mouthpieces and was constantly on the search for something that had tonal homogeny throughout all ranges, but that I could get plenty of volume out of. The S-Series hard rubber tenor mouthpiece is a result of the fruits of that search and I\u2019m proud to share a design that in my opinion encapsulates a remarkable amount of core, depth and evenness for a \u2018jazz\u2019 mouthpiece while still having the ability to cut. It\u2019s a reference to the great \u2018horseshoe\u2019 chamber pieces of the past, but made for the modern player.<\/em><\/p>\n

Creating the BSS line of mouthpieces has also given me an opportunity to approach the boutique market with a fresh methodology. After a lot of research, we partnered with one of the most technically advanced CNC machine shops in the country, giving us the ability to dial in an unbelievable level of precision and absolute consistency piece to piece. No need to worry if you are going to get a \u2018good one\u2019 because they are all great. In addition, every single one is hand finished at the shop and personally play tested by yours truly.<\/em><\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t be much more excited to share with you my first mouthpiece offering which represents for me the pinnacle of my product design over the past years and a milestone for Boston Sax Shop.-Jack Finucane”<\/em><\/p>\n

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Boston Sax Shop S-Series 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Boston Sax Shop S-Series 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece looks to be made of\u00a0 quality hard rubber.\u00a0 You can smell a little bit of that hard rubber smell that you typically smell on vintage hard rubber mouthpieces when you hold it up to your nose.<\/p>\n

The mouthpiece has the BSS logo engraved in white on the top of the mouthpiece and it has a nicely engraved white scroll on the shank of the mouthpiece.\u00a0 The tip opening of 7* is not machine engraved on the mouthpiece but is hand engraved on the left corner of the body next to the butt end of the table.<\/p>\n

Jack tells me that the S-Series is the same length as a vintage Short Shank Selmer Soloist and because of the smaller chamber it does sit further out on the cork than a typical Otto Link type tenor saxophone mouthpiece would. The combination of the lower baffle and the longer facing helps the S-Series to sit at a more moderate place on the cork than many refaced Selmer Soloists though.<\/p>\n

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Boston Sax Shop S-Series 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Boston Sax Shop S-Series 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece looks great to the eye.\u00a0 The tip, rails and table look even, flat, precise and well crafted.\u00a0 The mouthpiece tip rail and side rails are even and thin, and the shape of the tip rail perfectly matches the shape of the saxophone reeds I used on the mouthpiece.<\/p>\n

The baffle of the Boston Sax Shop S-Series 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece is a low quick rollover baffle right after the tip rail.\u00a0 The floor of the baffle during the decent is slightly curved from side to side.\u00a0 The baffle actually dips a little bit in a low long curve as it heads towards where it terminates at the rear of the chamber.\u00a0 That termination point is a little bit higher than the floor of the bore behind the mouthpiece chamber and\u00a0 it stops at the flat bottom part of the horseshoe shape.<\/p>\n

The mouthpiece chamber looks to be what I would consider a small sized chamber in comparison to typical hard rubber Otto Link sized chamber that I would consider a large sized chamber.\u00a0 The roof of the mouthpiece chamber under the table is very thick making up the top curve of the horseshoe shape.<\/p>\n

The sidewalls are straight from where they start near the tip all the way to the horseshoe shaped chamber exit.\u00a0 The sidewalls are at a slanted angle so that they start wider and gradually come in to create the squeezed sides of the small chamber.<\/p>\n

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Boston Sax Shop S-Series 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

The diameter and beak profile of the Boston Sax Shop S-Series 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece is very close to the diameter and beak profile of a typical modern hard rubber Otto Link tenor saxophone mouthpiece and Selmer Soloist tenor sax mouthpiece.\u00a0 All of my saxophone ligatures that fit comfortably on hard rubber Otto Link tenor saxophone mouthpieces fit on the Boston Sax Shop S-Series 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece perfectly.\u00a0 I chose to use the Boston Sax Shop Gold Superlative ligature that I reviewed last year<\/a> for this review.<\/p>\n

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Boston Sax Shop S-Series 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

In my trials of mouthpieces with different facing curves, I learned that long facing curves help harder reeds play easier and shorter facing curves help softer reeds play easier.\u00a0 I found this fact to be true with the Boston Sax Shop S-Series 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece.<\/p>\n

Usually with a 7* tip opening tenor sax mouthpiece, I can get by with a 2 1\/2 reed if I want to. With the BSS S-Series all my various brands of 2 1\/2 reeds felt way too soft because of the longer facing curve.\u00a0 Harder tenor sax reeds than I usually play on a 7* tenor mouthpiece actually played much easier because of the longer curve.\u00a0 I ended up using an Ishimori Woodstone 3 1\/2 tenor sax reed that played great on the S-Series mouthpiece below. (I’m all out of BSS reeds for the time being)<\/p>\n

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Boston Sax Shop S-Series 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Boston Sax Shop S-Series 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece had a warm balanced tenor saxophone tone that I thought was one of the darker tenor sax tones I have gotten with a tenor mouthpiece.\u00a0 The tone of the mouthpiece was thick, rich, focused and warm in my opinion.\u00a0 When I describe the tone as dark or warm, I am just describing that I don’t hear very many bright overtones in the saxophone tone.<\/p>\n

The low notes on the Boston Sax Shop S-Series\u00a0 tenor saxophone mouthpiece were full and robust with a tone that was warm and beautiful.\u00a0 I would describe the low notes as more concentrated and focused rather than fat and round.<\/p>\n

One interesting observation was that I didn’t feel the need to sub-tone on the Boston Sax Shop S-Series tenor saxophone mouthpiece like I do on Otto Link and baffled style tenor mouthpieces.\u00a0 I honestly probably sub-tone too much on those kind of pieces to soften and fatten up those low notes.\u00a0 The BSS S-Series mouthpiece has a tone down low that already is so warm and pleasant sounding that I didn’t feel the need to sub-tone down there as much.<\/p>\n

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Boston Sax Shop S-Series 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

The high notes were full, round and beautiful in my opinion.\u00a0 Like the low notes, they had a focused concentration to them but didn’t get bright and thin at all up there.<\/p>\n

The intonation on the Boston Sax Shop S-Series 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece was very good and the S-Series mouthpiece was a great match for my Selmer Super Balanced Action tenor saxophone (from the 50\u2019s).\u00a0 I would imagine the Boston Sax Shop S-Series tenor saxophone mouthpiece would be a great match for any vintage Selmer tenor saxophone (many of the them came with Selmer Soloists at the time) although a saxophone like a Conn that needs a more large chambered tenor sax mouthpiece might not do as well with the smaller chamber of the S-Series.\u00a0 You would have to ask Jack Finucane at Boston Sax Shop about that one…..<\/p>\n

The evenness and smoothness of notes throughout the range of the saxophone was nice when playing fast lines.\u00a0 The character and warm tone seemed to blend well as I played faster lines throughout the low, mid and high range of the saxophone.\u00a0 I think you can hear this smoothness in the fast technical lines I play on the sound clips below.<\/p>\n

The altissimo register of the saxophone was easy to produce on the Boston Sax Shop S-Series 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece and the notes were easy to control and manipulate.<\/p>\n

The Boston Sax Shop S-Series 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece had a good amount of power when pushed.\u00a0 I would say the volume was about 8 when pushed on my 1-10 volume scale. I like to think that the squeezed throat of the smaller chamber helps to really speed up the air as you blow harder almost like a straw would when blowing through it.\u00a0 I have no idea if this has any factual basis in acoustical science but I’m just a sax player so what do I know……It sounds good…… It did seem to me like the BSS S-Series had more of a focused loudness when pushed as opposed to an Otto Link Slant style hard rubber tenor mouthpiece that has more of a spread loudness.<\/p>\n

The S-Series mouthpiece did get a little brighter in tone when pushed but the brightness seemed more like a midrange brightness rather than a high end brightness if I were to relate it to the effects of EQ on a sound.\u00a0 Even at the mouthpiece’s top volume, I felt like the Boston Sax Shop S-Series 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece still retains a darker warmth to the tone although there were at times some edge introduced into the tone at loud volumes which I believe is from pushing all that air through the small chamber.<\/p>\n

On the sound clips below, I try to give a good range and variety of saxophone sounds and textures so that you can hear the Boston Sax Shop S-Series 7* tenor saxophone mouthpiece perform in different styles.<\/p>\n

One important piece of advice I can give is to make sure you give yourself a good amount of time to adjust to the Boston Sax Shop S-Series tenor mouthpiece if you haven’t played a Soloist style tenor mouthpiece before.\u00a0 This advice basically holds true for any sax mouthpiece you try.<\/p>\n

If you play a Guardala style tenor sax mouthpiece and then try an Otto Link style mouthpiece you will have an adjustment period.\u00a0 If you play an Otto Link style mouthpiece and then try a Guardala style mouthpiece you will have an adjustment period.\u00a0 If you play a non-Soloist style mouthpiece and then try a Soloist style sax mouthpiece you will have an adjustment period.<\/p>\n

For me, that adjustment period usually takes about 8-12 hours of playing.\u00a0 This usually has to be done in roughly 2-3 hour increments.\u00a0 If I play a mouthpiece 24 times for 1\/2 an hour each, that is technically 12 hours but I don’t seem to adjust to a mouthpiece that way.\u00a0 When I spend 2-3 hours playing on a mouthpiece, at a certain point some pretty cool magical things start happening between me and the new mouthpiece.<\/p>\n

For example, in the first clip below at the 4:38 time marker, I start playing fast and for whatever reason I let some of my air collect in the top front part of my mouth over the mouthpiece.\u00a0 It’s hard to explain but I could feel the air in the top front of my mouth gathering there and it actually felt like it was pushing out against my top lip a bit.\u00a0 I immediately noticed a huge difference in the smoothness of the lines and the resonance I was hearing and feeling.\u00a0 \u00a0I can hear it in the clip, I’m not sure if you will be able to but I notice it listening just like I did while playing.<\/p>\n

Here are some other adjustments I made that made a huge difference:<\/p>\n