{"id":47284,"date":"2017-10-30T17:44:20","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T21:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/?p=47284"},"modified":"2022-11-16T15:10:27","modified_gmt":"2022-11-16T20:10:27","slug":"phil-tone-novella-alto-saxophone-mouthpiece-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/phil-tone-novella-alto-saxophone-mouthpiece-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Phil-Tone Novella Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I am reviewing another great alto 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. \u00a0A couple of months ago he announced that he had a new mouthpiece model called the Novella that was based off of the Selmer Soloist alto saxophone mouthpiece.\u00a0 There is a “Jazz” model that I am reviewing today and a “Classic”model also.\u00a0 \u00a0Phil’s description of the “Jazz” model was that “it has a significant rollover baffle and is a seriously versatile lead alto piece. It has a nice warm buzz and more focus than a Meyer. It’s a ton of fun to play and even through the range.\u00a0It is reminiscent of the Kenny Garrett vibe……..”<\/em><\/p>\n

Here’s another quote from Phil about the new Novella alto sax mouthpiece from his website:<\/p>\n

The Novella is inspired by the Short Shank Soloists. \u00a0It sports a horseshoe chamber and a beautifully hand sculpted rollover baffle and and incredibly responsive facing. \u00a0The Novella was inspired by the music of Kenny Garrett. \u00a0The Novella Jazz is an excellent choice for the player who wants the zip and pop of a great jazz alto piece along with the added focus made possibly by this design.-Phil Engleman\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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Phil-Tone Novella Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Phil-Tone Novella alto saxophone mouthpiece I received to review is hard rubber. \u00a0The exterior of the mouthpiece is pretty plain looking. \u00a0There is no engraving on it except “Novella” hand engraved on on side of the body and “Phil-Tone” hand engraved on the other side.\u00a0 Phil’s mouthpieces usually have more engraving on them to represent the brand and model so I am thinking this might just be a prototype mouthpiece of the Novella. \u00a0The mouthpiece is a .076 tip opening.<\/p>\n

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Phil-Tone Novella Alto 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 has a nice rollover to it and then the baffle heads straight down into the back of the chamber area.\u00a0 The sidewalls are straight.\u00a0 The baffle looks like it narrows a bit as it heads into the chamber because the sidewalls look to angle in a bit.<\/p>\n

The Novella alto mouthpiece has a classic horseshoe shaped chamber reminiscent of the classic Selmer Soloist alto saxophone mouthpieces.<\/p>\n

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Phil-Tone Novella Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I first played the Phil-Tone Novella alto mouthpiece it was with a Rigotti Gold 3 Medium reed.\u00a0 I ended up recording on that same reed.\u00a0 I found it to have a bright focused sound that got a bit more of that classic Kenny Garrett tone when pushed. At a soft or medium volume it had a nice bright bebop sound to it.<\/p>\n

The .076 tip opening felt a little small for me on this mouthpiece.\u00a0 I think I would prefer the .081 tip opening as I am generally more comfortable with an .080 tip.\u00a0 I think the slightly bigger tip would allow me to put more air through the piece and be able to push it farther into that Kenny Garrett sound.\u00a0 At the .076 tip opening the Garrett sound is in there if you listen to the recording but I think it would be even stronger with a more open tip.<\/p>\n

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Phil-Tone Novella Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Phil-Tone Novella alto saxophone mouthpiece played easily for me.\u00a0 It was smooth and even throughout the range of my alto and the intonation was good.\u00a0 I found the middle D#,E and F to be slightly more sharp than on other large chamber alto mouthpieces but I believe that is due to the smaller more focused chamber of the Novella. Although a little sharper, the intonation is still easy to\u00a0 control once you are used to it.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of the sound clip I start with a little bit of a Kenny Garrett tune I remember.\u00a0 I can’t remember the name or what album it is from but I’m pretty sure it is Kenny Garrett.\u00a0 The “Garrett” tone is very unique in my opinion.\u00a0 To me it has a bright hollowness to the sound that I would describe as almost having a “nasal” quality to it.\u00a0 I see these qualities as what makes the tone so unique and special as not many people have this type of tone.<\/p>\n

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Phil-Tone Novella Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you like the clips below and the Novella 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 Novella or any of his other mouthpiece models. \u00a0Thanks for letting me try the Novella Phil!<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/cdn.neffmusic.com\/2017\/Novella5.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

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

Disclosure: I did not receive any compensation or products at the time this review was written. I borrowed this mouthpiece from Phil who was kind enough to let me try it for the review. 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 am reviewing another great alto 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. \u00a0A couple of months ago he announced that he had a new mouthpiece model called the Novella […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":47307,"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":[1123,46,487],"tags":[297,560,197,165,658,117,186],"class_list":{"0":"post-47284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-alto-medium-baffle-reviews","8":"category-alto-mouthpieces","9":"category-mouthpiece-reviews","10":"tag-alto-saxophone","11":"tag-kenny-garrett","12":"tag-phil-engleman","13":"tag-phil-tone","14":"tag-review","15":"tag-sax-mouthpiece","16":"tag-selmer-soloist","17":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47284","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=47284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}