{"id":45194,"date":"2017-07-23T15:17:37","date_gmt":"2017-07-23T19:17:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/?p=45194"},"modified":"2022-11-16T15:25:48","modified_gmt":"2022-11-16T20:25:48","slug":"phil-tone-intrepid-tenor-saxophone-mouthpiece-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/phil-tone-intrepid-tenor-saxophone-mouthpiece-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Phil-Tone Intrepid Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I am reviewing another great tenor saxophone mouthpiece made by Phil Engleman at Phil-Tone mouthpieces<\/a>. \u00a0I have reviewed quite a few Phil-Tone sax mouthpieces on the site<\/a>\u00a0already and am always interested when Phil announces\u00a0a new mouthpiece model.<\/p>\n

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Phil-Tone Intrepid Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

A couple of months ago he announced that he had stumbled upon a new sax mouthpiece that he was very excited about and that Bob Franceschini was playing on and endorsing called the Intrepid. Here’s a quote from Phil about the new Intrepid sax mouthpiece:<\/p>\n

I got a Reso Chamber mouthpiece in recently and started looking at it. When I designed the Sapphire chamber I wanted a piece between a slant and an EB link. I also wanted a thinner table. Later I made the Sapphire special which is a higher baffle version of the Sapphire.<\/em><\/p>\n

…Little did I know that I made a chamber nearly identical to the Reso Chamber. I’ve been experimenting with rail width, lengthening the window which is quite long on reso chamber pieces and I have altered the baffle design on the Sapphire special. Low and behold its a piece very much like a Reso Chamber.<\/em><\/p>\n

I just took some more measurements out of curiosity. Chamber depth anywhere my tools will go is dead on…in a weird way. My tip looks wider than the original but after measuring I found it to be in the same. The exterior shape difference of my blank makes it look a little wider at the tip. At this point I would never call it a copy. It wasn’t digitized like the Tribute. However, it more than makes reference to the Reso Chamber\u00a0tone, color and behavior.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Its always interesting how different baffles behave. Some designs play brighter with a lower baffle than a traditional rollover. Its counter-intuitive but it happens. This piece has a subtle step baffle vs the original sapphire rollover and this piece is significantly brighter in terms of the color surrounding the core.<\/em><\/p>\n

Next…drop the baffle way down and change its shape from a rollover to a straight baffle with a lesser angle than on a piece like a STM and all of a sudden you have a piece that was brighter than when you have a rollover, clearly it is about baffle type not height. But it is interesting. It seems to then be about moving air across the surface of a plane prior to the drop off into a deeper chamber.\u00a0-Phil Engleman\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The Phil-Tone Intrepid saxophone mouthpiece I received to review is hard rubber. \u00a0The exterior of the mouthpiece is pretty plain looking. \u00a0Phil-Tone is engraved on the top of the mouthpiece in white. \u00a0The word Intrepid is written by hand on the corner of the body of the mouthpiece. \u00a0The mouthpiece is a 7* tip opening which is around .105.<\/p>\n

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Phil-Tone Intrepid Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

The tip rail is very close in shape to my Rigotti Gold reeds and the table\u00a0and rails look even and well made. \u00a0The baffle looks a bit lopsided when looking at it by eye in the light. \u00a0You can see this in the last picture below. \u00a0You can see how the right side of the baffle extends a little bit further than the left side making the baffle curve look askew. Although this might bother some perfectionists out there, my experience has been that a slightly crooked baffle can play surprisingly well. \u00a0In fact, some of my favorite mouthpieces in my collection have baffles that are crooked. (My main gigging metal Otto Link has a very crooked baffle in it that Jon Van Wie put in it and that mouthpiece wails!)<\/p>\n

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Phil-Tone Intrepid Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

I spent about two weeks playing the Intrepid mouthpiece and ended up making two sound clips of it. \u00a0 One is with a Rigotti Gold 3 Light reed.\u00a0 Although the reed felt great on it and it was easy to blow, I had the thought yesterday that perhaps it was a tad soft and I should try a harder reed. \u00a0I put on a Rigotti Gold 3 Medium and that did the trick for me. \u00a0The slightly harder reed gave me more to blow against and I could get more volume and a thicker heartier sound up high. \u00a0 I included both clips because I think they both provide good examples of how the mouthpiece plays for me with the different reed strengths.<\/p>\n

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Phil-Tone Intrepid Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Phil’s description above he writes that the Intrepid mouthpiece is similar in design to the old Otto Link Reso Chamber. \u00a0I have never played on a Reso Chamber so I can’t compare the Intrepid to one. \u00a0 I have to admit that I\u00a0have not heard much if anything about Reso Chambers over the years and always assumed they were probably not very good compared to the Otto Link Slant Signatures that we have all heard about. \u00a0 The only player I have known that played a Reso Chamber was Seamus Blake who I went to Berklee with. \u00a0I always thought Seamus sounded great on his Reso Chamber although I always considered his sound to be quite dark on it. I believe Ben Wendel plays a Reso Chamber\u00a0also and he also has quite a dark sound in my opinion.<\/p>\n

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Phil-Tone Intrepid Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

Interestingly enough, I found the Intrepid mouthpiece to be quite bright for me. \u00a0I was expecting a darker tone from it from my preconceived idea of what a Reso Chamber would sound like but what I got was\u00a0surprisingly brighter I thought. \u00a0I emailed Phil about this and he responded:<\/p>\n

“Its not a copy\u2026its similar but I tend to add a little punch to them. \u00a0The baffle profile and the structure is much like the Reso Chamber but the angle of the baffle can be changed for darker or brighter presentation.”<\/em><\/p>\n

This is not a brightness like a Guardala or similar step baffled mouthpiece but a more spread brightness. \u00a0Higher baffled mouthpieces will generally have almost a laserbeam type focus to their brightness. \u00a0When you play, it is like the sound comes out of the bell, hits the wall in one specific spot and bounces back to your ears. What you hear is a tightly wrapped core of focused sound. \u00a0With the Intrepid it is more like the tone is fatter and more spread. \u00a0 For me, it feels like I would play and the tone would leave the bell and immediately disperse to all corners of the room. \u00a0In a way, the sound is bigger and fills the room with a big “wash” of sound but it is not as direct and focused as a typical higher baffled mouthpiece if that makes sense.<\/p>\n

I think that “spread” big sound gives the tone more character and depth in my opinion. It has a thick substantial sound to it. This is especially true with the 3 Medium reed clip. I felt like the higher register and altissimo had a more substantial thick tone to the notes than the 3 Light reed.<\/p>\n

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Phil-Tone Intrepid Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the 3 Light reed I felt like the Intrepid would only give me so much power but with the 3 Medium the power of the Intrepid was multiplied. \u00a0I had a lot of fun playing up in the altissmo with the 3 Medium reed as the tone didn’t thin out as it does with many mouthpiece. \u00a0 It was full and fat.<\/p>\n

The low notes were also very robust and thick in my opinion. \u00a0I use subtone quite a bit down low and the Intrepid subtoned nicely.<\/p>\n

The other thing I loved about the Intrepid is that it had a nice resistance that I could blow against to manipulate and shape the notes. \u00a0 The intonation was also\u00a0very good.<\/p>\n

As far as playing gigs with the Intrepid, I think it would be a terrific mouthpiece to play in a jazz or big band setting for sure. \u00a0In really loud settings with guitars and synths, I think the spread nature of the tone might make it hard for the Intrepid to cut through in a mix like that. \u00a0 Don’t get me wrong, the Intrepid has plenty of power and brightness when pushed but my experience has been that pieces with a spread tone often times get lost in the mix when fighting with electronic instruments. \u00a0That being said, Bob Reynolds plays a hard rubber Otto Link and seems to manage in those settings so it could work…….<\/p>\n

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Phil-Tone Intrepid Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you like the clips below and the Intrepid mouthpiece interests you contact Phil Engleman via his website at Phil-tone.com<\/a>. \u00a0 Phil is very knowledgeable about sax mouthpieces and will answer any questions you might have about the Intrepid or any of his other mouthpiece models. \u00a0Thanks for letting me try the Intrepid Phil!<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/cdn.neffmusic.com\/2017\/Intrepid3L.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

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Phil-Tone Intrepid Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece- Rigotti Gold 3 Light Reed<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/cdn.neffmusic.com\/2017\/Intrepid3M.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

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Phil-Tone Intrepid Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece- Rigotti Gold 3 Medium Reed<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I received the mouthpiece mentioned above with the option of buying it at a discounted rate if I so choose in the hope that I would try it and perhaps review it on my blog. Regardless, I only review mouthpieces that I enjoy playing and believe will be good for other saxophone players to try also. Steve<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I am reviewing another great tenor saxophone mouthpiece made by Phil Engleman at Phil-Tone mouthpieces. \u00a0I have reviewed quite a few Phil-Tone sax mouthpieces on the site\u00a0already and am always interested when Phil announces\u00a0a new mouthpiece model. Phil-Tone Intrepid Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece A couple of months ago he announced that he had stumbled upon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":45195,"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":[1120,45],"tags":[129,1625,197,165,658,117,265],"class_list":{"0":"post-45194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tenor-medium-baffle-reviews","8":"category-tenor-mouthpieces","9":"tag-hard-rubber","10":"tag-intrepid","11":"tag-phil-engleman","12":"tag-phil-tone","13":"tag-review","14":"tag-sax-mouthpiece","15":"tag-tenor-saxophone","16":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45194","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=45194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}