{"id":37122,"date":"2016-06-01T13:18:25","date_gmt":"2016-06-01T17:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/?p=37122"},"modified":"2016-06-01T16:00:51","modified_gmt":"2016-06-01T20:00:51","slug":"ted-klum-london-model-tenor-saxophone-mouthpiece-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/ted-klum-london-model-tenor-saxophone-mouthpiece-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Ted Klum London Model Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s review is of a very used Ted Klum London model tenor saxophone mouthpiece that a friend of mine was nice enough to let me try. \u00a0 Ted Klum is a great sax mouthpiece maker and refacer who has a great reputation among saxophone players. \u00a0 His site is www.tedklummouthpieces.com<\/a>. \u00a0 It has been quite a while since I have reviewed one of Ted Klum’s saxophone mouthpieces and he has come out with a variety of models since I first reviewed one of his mouthpieces way back in 2009.<\/p>\n

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Ted Klum London Model Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/span><\/p>\n

The day I received this mouthpiece in the mail, I also received an email from the sender warning me that it might be wise to wear ear protection as I test this mouthpiece out! \u00a0I already had a pretty good idea that this mouthpiece would pack a serious punch from looking at the height and shape of the baffle coupled with the small chamber.<\/p>\n

The first thing I noticed when taking this mouthpiece out of the package was that this is one of the heaviest sax mouthpieces I have tried. \u00a0This is a solid piece of brass! \u00a0Much heavier than the other metal mouthpieces I\u00a0have that is for sure……..<\/p>\n

As you can see from the picture below, the table on this mouthpiece is pretty\u00a0worn out from lots of playing I assume. \u00a0It is not uncommon for saliva to eat away at the plating on different mouthpieces over time. \u00a0The rate at which this happens is also connected to the body chemistry of the player I would imagine. \u00a0 The mouthpiece still played well and got a seal with reeds so if the wear has any affect on the facing of this mouthpiece I could not tell.<\/p>\n

Addition: \u00a0I heard from a friend that what causes the corrosion on the table is leaving wet reeds on the mouthpiece. \u00a0Here’s what he wrote: \u00a0“P.S. Regarding the cause of the corrosion on the table: It’s not saliva, per se, it’s the fact that it is wet. It sets up a local galvanic cell that corrodes the plating.” \u00a0<\/span>This makes sense as I had the same thing happen to an old Sugal SGI mouthpiece and I left a reed on that almost always………<\/p>\n

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Ted Klum London Model Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00a0refer to the type of baffle in the Ted Klum London model as a scooped out baffle or bullet baffle. \u00a0You see this kind of baffle a lot in Berg Larsen mouthpieces typically. \u00a0The baffle is a high smooth rollover type that has a scoop out of it at the bottom in the shape of a bullet. \u00a0The sidewalls are straight and don’t open up until they reach the chamber. \u00a0I would consider the chamber to be small in my opinion.<\/p>\n

The affect of this high baffle and small chamber is that you get an extremely powerful and focused sound to the tone. \u00a0 The high baffle and small chamber give the air and sound less of a space to travel through and when they reach the horn I feel like it is similar to when you put your finger over the end of the hose as water is coming out. \u00a0It speeds up the water and you get a more focused and powerful stream.<\/p>\n

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Ted Klum London Model Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00a0first tried the London model mouthpiece with a 2 1\/2 strong Rigotti Gold reed but found that to be too soft. \u00a0 I then tried a 3 Light which seemed perfect to me. \u00a0My first thought as I played a few notes was “Yep, this is really loud!” \u00a0 The danger with high baffle and small chamber mouthpieces is sometimes\u00a0the sound can be thin in the upper register. \u00a0I didn’t feel that with the London model though. \u00a0The tone was brighter and could be edgy but it still sounded fat and big to me.<\/p>\n

Because of the high baffle and small chamber, \u00a0the London model needed to be further out on my neck cork than a typical Otto Link style mouthpiece. \u00a0I would say that this mouthpiece sat at about a 1\/4 to 1\/3 of a ways on my cork to be in tune.<\/p>\n

I\u00a0would put this saxophone mouthpiece in the same category of sound as some of the great Berg’s I have reviewed on this site or the Drake Pete Christlieb mouthpiece. \u00a0The baffle and chamber shape are very similar in all those pieces…………<\/p>\n

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Ted Klum London Model Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u00a0made one clip of this mouthpiece but decided to offer one version dry and one with a little bit of reverb. \u00a0 Nothing fancy, just the general reverb that garageband has. \u00a0You could hear in the clips below that the altissimo was pretty easy to get. \u00a0There is a quality in the altissimo notes that I really liked. \u00a0As I write this and listen to the clip it’s hard for me to find the right words to describe it. \u00a0It sounds bright, edgy at times and a bit aggressive. The tone has almost a ringing metallic sound to me. That really doesn’t make any sense but that is what comes to my mind as I listen back to the clip.<\/p>\n

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Ted Klum London Model Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/span><\/p>\n

The Ted Klum London Model is a great sax mouthpiece for those looking for\u00a0volume to cut through the mix on the\u00a0gig. \u00a0 I\u00a0would consider it a great mouthpiece for R&B sax playing or soloing where you have to cut through a loud band playing modern music. \u00a0 You can\u00a0hear in the clip where I lay back a bit\u00a0and it is workable for some jazz playing. \u00a0It’s important to mention that I was in know way playing at 100% volume during any portion of this clip. \u00a0I think I took it to maybe 80% at times. \u00a0This is the kind of mouthpieces that you can really push to get that extra volume when needed that is for sure………..<\/p>\n

If you enjoy the clip, don’t be dissuaded by the worn table picture above. \u00a0Contact Ted Klum<\/a> and get a London Model saxophone mouthpiece for yourself. \u00a0I know Ted Klum puts out the very best sax mouthpieces and your London model will be sparkling new and perfect!<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/cdn.neffmusic.com\/2016\/Klum%20London.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

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Ted Klum London Model Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece-Dry<\/span><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/cdn.neffmusic.com\/2016\/Klum%20London%20Reverb.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

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Ted Klum London Model Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece-Reverb<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s review is of a very used Ted Klum London model tenor saxophone mouthpiece that a friend of mine was nice enough to let me try. \u00a0 Ted Klum is a great sax mouthpiece maker and refacer who has a great reputation among saxophone players. \u00a0 His site is www.tedklummouthpieces.com. \u00a0 It has been quite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":37128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1119],"tags":[340,1493,117,204,265],"class_list":{"0":"post-37122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tenor-high-baffle-reviews","8":"tag-high-baffle","9":"tag-london-model","10":"tag-sax-mouthpiece","11":"tag-ted-klum","12":"tag-tenor-saxophone","13":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/63"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}