{"id":41416,"date":"2017-01-25T19:18:11","date_gmt":"2017-01-26T00:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/?p=41416"},"modified":"2022-11-17T10:56:42","modified_gmt":"2022-11-17T15:56:42","slug":"rafael-navarro-bebop-special-silver-tenor-saxophone-mouthpiece-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/2017\/01\/rafael-navarro-bebop-special-silver-tenor-saxophone-mouthpiece-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Rafael Navarro Bebop Special Silver Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I\u00a0am reviewing another great mouthpiece by Rafael Navarro. \u00a0This is a metal\u00a0silver plated Bebop Special model. \u00a0I have reviewed most of Rafael Navarro’s tenor models<\/a> in the past but I’m always excited when I can try a new one! \u00a0 The Navarro Bebop Special hard rubber model is the mouthpiece that Bob Mintzer plays and I didn’t even know there was a metal version of the Bebop Special until now. \u00a0 I have a Skype student I see once a week that bought it and played it for a lesson. \u00a0I asked what his new mouthpiece was and when he said it was a Navarro Bebop Special I assumed he was making a mistake and it was some other model as I had never heard of a metal BBS mouthpiece. \u00a0He was correct and it is indeed a Navarro Bebop Special model metal mouthpiece.<\/p>\n

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Rafael Navarro Bebop Special Silver Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

My student was nice enough to lend me\u00a0this mouthpiece for this review for which I am very thankful. \u00a0As with all Navarro mouthpieces, the craftsmanship is excellent. \u00a0The silver plating on the mouthpiece was so perfect and reflective\u00a0that I found it a bit hard to take pictures of. (I kept seeing myself in the reflections on the mouthpiece taking the picture……..)<\/p>\n

The body of the mouthpiece has ridges in it that are reminiscent of a few Freddie Gregory metal mouthpieces I have owned\u00a0over the years. \u00a0I’m not sure if the ridges serve a purpose in any way sonically but they look kind of cool. (Although a pain to clean when you have to get gook out them for the picture………..)<\/p>\n

Like all Navarro mouthpieces, \u00a0The table, rails, tip and baffle are about as perfect as you will ever see. \u00a0This is a used mouthpiece so there is a little bit of wear on the table but the rest of the mouthpiece looks perfect.<\/p>\n

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Rafael Navarro Bebop Special Silver Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Navarro Bebop Special tenor mouthpiece is a 7* tip opening which is a .105. \u00a0It is about the same outer dimension size as an Otto Link metal mouthpiece. \u00a0The bore and chamber of the BBS (Bebop Special)was also similar in size to a metal Otto Link.<\/p>\n

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Rafael Navarro Bebop Special Silver Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I tried a bunch of reeds on the Bebop Special but found the Rigotti Gold 3 Light to be the best for me. A Selmer 404 silver ligature fit perfect so I used one of those also. \u00a0 The baffle has a flat part near the tip that descends toward the chamber in a straight angle. \u00a0It hits a semi-circle shaped edge and then descends at a greater angle into the chamber.<\/p>\n

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Rafael Navarro Bebop Special Silver Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

As I first looked at the Bebop Special, I found myself thinking that it would probably lean to the brighter side because of that first stage of the baffle. \u00a0I was surprised when playing it when I found that it was a lot darker than I thought it would be. \u00a0When I pushed it, \u00a0the tone became brighter but sort of leveled off at a midrange point if that makes sense. \u00a0Many times, I talk about mouthpieces being dark or bright or right in the middle. \u00a0The Navarro Bebop Special metal mouthpiece sounded really dark when played quietly. \u00a0It was lush and full and robust………but pretty dark. \u00a0When I pushed it, however, \u00a0it would kind of creep up to that middle point between dark and bright for me. \u00a0It wouldn’t go full blown bright like many pieces do but seemed to stay at that halfway point between dark and bright.<\/p>\n

Now, that being said, on the day I recorded this, I was really in love with this mouthpiece. \u00a0I probably played for 4-5 hours and I was coming up with all sorts of creative ideas. I was really digging the sound,\u00a0which is what inspires my creativity. \u00a0I was going back and forth between the two sides of my brain, “I have to buy this” and “You have enough mouthpiece already!” \u00a0The fact was that I was intrigued by this mouthpiece. \u00a0 It has what I would consider a very unique sound to it……….<\/p>\n

Although it doesn’t get overly bright it is plenty powerful in a midrange kind of way. \u00a0The low end is full, textured and full of character. \u00a0The high end and altissimo is round and fat but not overly bright also. \u00a0The evenness between notes\u00a0was very good and inspired me to play fast as the notes blended together so smoothly and evenly. The only thing that\u00a0slowed me down was how good the held out notes sounded……….<\/p>\n

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Rafael Navarro Bebop Special Silver Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Rafael Navarro Bebop Special Metal\u00a0Tenor Mouthpiece was a complete joy to play. If you like the sound of the clip below and the mouthpiece catches your interest then give it a try. \u00a0You can contact Rafael on his website<\/a>. \u00a0Thanks again to my Skype student who let me try this…….he knows who he is……… (If you ever want to sell it let me know…………)<\/p>\n

If you order one from Rafael, tell him\u00a0Steve sent you\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026.<\/p>\n

Let me know what you think in the comments below. \u00a0Thanks, Steve<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/cdn.neffmusic.com\/2017\/NavarroBBSMetal.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Rafael Navarro Bebop Special Silver Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I have not received any compensation or products for writing this review. I am borrowing this mouthpiece from a fellow saxophone player who was kind enough to let me borrow it. Regardless, I only review mouthpieces and other saxophone related products that I\u00a0enjoy and believe will be a good choice for other saxophone players to try also. \u00a0 \u00a0Steve Neff<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I\u00a0am reviewing another great mouthpiece by Rafael Navarro. \u00a0This is a metal\u00a0silver plated Bebop Special model. \u00a0I have reviewed most of Rafael Navarro’s tenor models in the past but I’m always excited when I can try a new one! \u00a0 The Navarro Bebop Special hard rubber model is the mouthpiece that Bob Mintzer plays […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":42015,"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":[487,1120,45],"tags":[1568,1080,10,673,658,613,1567],"class_list":{"0":"post-41416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mouthpiece-reviews","8":"category-tenor-medium-baffle-reviews","9":"category-tenor-mouthpieces","10":"tag-bbs","11":"tag-bebop-special","12":"tag-jazz-saxophone","13":"tag-rafael-navarro","14":"tag-review","15":"tag-silver","16":"tag-tenor-sax-mouthpiece","17":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41416","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=41416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}