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<\/a><\/p>\nRico Metalite M7 and M9 Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n I received the Rico Metalite M7 and the M9 mouthpieces about a week later in the mail.\u00a0 From what I have read online, the Rico Metalite M7 is a .105 tip opening and the Metalite M9 is a .115 tip opening.\u00a0 The material looks like some sort of plastic to me and after searching the internet, I found this information on Amazon:<\/p>\n Metalite mouthpieces were designed by Arnold Brilhart and offer the brilliant sound qualities of metal using a durable composite material. Metalite mouthpieces are free blowing and feature three facing options: M5 (.095 short facing), M7 (.105 medium facing) and M9 (.115 long facing).<\/em><\/p>\n Designed by the world’s leading mouthpiece designer, Arnold Brilhart, the Metalite line of mouthpieces incorporates revolutionary materials to achieve ease of tone production and a wide range of tonal colors.<\/em><\/p>\n In the description above, it says Rico is using a “revolutionary material” but in other sources on the internet I have read “plastic”, “polycarbonate” and “composite material”.\u00a0 I believe all of these equate to plastic if I am not mistaken.\u00a0 \u00a0At one time,\u00a0 plastic was quite revolutionary so I guess we can give them a pass on their “revolutionary material” description.<\/p>\n Rico Metalite M7 and M9 Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n When I received the Metalite saxophone mouthpieces and opened the package, the mouthpieces looked pretty much how I would imagine a 25-32 dollar mouthpiece would look.\u00a0 They are lightweight, look like plastic and look like they are machine made to my eyes.\u00a0 (If I imagined the Terminator making tenor saxophone mouthpieces,\u00a0 this is how they would look).<\/p>\n The rails, tip and baffle elements are all present but you can see some unevenness with the naked eye.\u00a0 \u00a0On the M7 the left rail looks thicker than the right and the tip rails don’t look exactly even on both the M7 and M9.\u00a0 The rails and tip rail look a bit thicker than you generally see on a handmade sax mouthpiece also.\u00a0 You can see fine horizontal milling lines on the table and rails if you look closely under the light.<\/p>\n The baffle looks almost like it is a separate piece that was glued in to me.\u00a0 I don’t see any spaces around the edges of it, so if it is glued in they must make it to exactly the right size to fit so snuggly.\u00a0 The baffle is definitely high.\u00a0 When I first saw the baffles,\u00a0 I thought that these two mouthpieces would be really bright screamers that is for sure.<\/p>\n The baffle right after the tip declines at a greater angle until it hits what I think is an added baffle which is a bit higher.\u00a0 This causes a bit of a depression right behind the tip rail.\u00a0 Later in the review, I mention how I am surprised that these Metalite mouthpieces aren’t brighter but I think it might be because of this depression right after the tip rail.<\/p>\n The sidewalls of the Rico Metalite mouthpiece are straight right up to the border of the chamber.\u00a0 Although the chamber is rounded out, when you look into the shank end of the mouthpiece you can see the straight sidewalls.\u00a0 The opening to the chamber has a rectangle type shape but both sides of the rectangle on the top and bottom are curved.\u00a0 You can see this when you look at the last picture in this review below.<\/p>\n Rico Metalite M7 and M9 Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n I have had these two Metalite mouthpieces on my desk for a couple of months now and have tried them probably a dozen times over those two months.\u00a0 \u00a0Let’s start with the good points.<\/p>\n The good news is that these mouthpieces play.\u00a0 They are not reed picky and every sax reed I put on them played fine and passed the suction test.\u00a0 They played loud and had tons of power when pushed which is no surprise when you look at the baffles.\u00a0 I was actually surprised that these mouthpieces weren’t much brighter due to those incredibly high baffles.\u00a0 \u00a0I considered them to have a more mid-range kind of sound as if you boosted the mids on the EQ dial.\u00a0 The harder you blow, the more the brights would come out but at a soft to medium volume I considered them pretty mid range.<\/p>\n With a softer reed, like the Rigotti Gold 2 1\/2 Strong reeds, the Metalite mouthpieces are brighter than with the Rigotti 3 Lights which is a slightly harder reed. With the Rigotti 3 Lights, the Metalites sounded a bit darker and warmer to me but the increased reed strength also made them a little more edgy at times.<\/p>\n The intonation was fine also and within normal parameters for my saxophone.\u00a0 \u00a0Sometimes a high baffle sax mouthpiece can throw the intonation off on my Selmer SBA but with the Metalites it was fine.\u00a0 \u00a0I thought they played quite well for a sax mouthpiece in that low price range that is for sure.<\/p>\n Rico Metalite M7 and M9 Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n Now for some negatives.\u00a0 Please remember that I have played and reviewed hundreds of the best saxophone mouthpieces over the years so my perspective and opinions are based on my experiences with all those other mouthpieces.<\/p>\n The reason I didn’t do a review sooner was that I never felt totally comfortable while playing these Rico Metalite mouthpieces.\u00a0 \u00a0They played fine as you can hear when you listen to the clips but there were some little things happening while I was playing that stopped me from being 100% comfortable on these mouthpieces.\u00a0 Here are a few examples:<\/p>\n There were many times where I would go to play a note and the mouthpiece wouldn’t speak initially.\u00a0 I think you can hear a couple of these times that I included on the sound clips below.\u00a0 Many times that can be caused from an inefficient facing curve that might not be the best.\u00a0 When this happens many times I will try a suction test and the mouthpiece and reed will fail so I know what is causing it.\u00a0 In this case, the metalites passed each suction test so I’m guessing maybe the curve isn’t as efficient as I am used as compared to\u00a0 some other more expensive mouthpieces I have tried.\u00a0 I don’t know for sure and am just hypothesizing here.<\/p>\n The other thing I experienced was that sometimes notes played fast would sound clunky to me.\u00a0 They were not smooth.\u00a0 Many times I experience this when the range of notes on the saxophone are not even and uniform to each other in timbre.\u00a0 You can hear in the sound clips where the middle register of the horn sounds a bit “stuffy” and “tubby” (another word for tubby is muted or nasal) to my ears.\u00a0 When I jump from a note that is clear to a note that is “tubby” in sound it feels like the line is disconnected and not smooth and flowing.<\/p>\n I especially encountered this when I played larger intervals.\u00a0 When playing notes that are next to each other the differences in tonality and timbre are less than when you jump around usually.\u00a0 I remember playing fourths a couple times and really struggling with the lines sounding smooth and even.\u00a0 Unfortunately, that fourth line didn’t make the sound clip so you will just have to take my word for it.<\/p>\n I also felt like my articulation wasn’t as fast or smooth on the Rico Metalite mouthpieces.\u00a0 It was ok but it wasn’t as crisp and clear as many hand faced mouthpieces I have reviewed over the years.\u00a0 I assume that what I was experiencing had something to do with the tip rail design or that depression after the tip rail.<\/p>\n Rico Metalite M7 and M9 Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n I included two sound clips for each mouthpiece below.\u00a0 One is with the Rigotti 2 1\/2 Strong reed and one is with the harder Rigotti 3 Light reed.\u00a0 I will say that I didn’t feel 100% comfortable on either mouthpiece during the recordings but of the four recordings,\u00a0 I think I was the most comfortable on the M7 mouthpiece clip with the Rigotti 2 1\/2 Strong reed.<\/p>\n Personally, I much preferred the M7 at the .105 tip opening than the M9.\u00a0 The M9 played great with the Rigotti reeds but the .115 tip opening and long facing curve just felt too open for my tastes.\u00a0 I also felt like the M9 had a tone that was a bit too spread and open sounding for me.\u00a0 This is a hard concept to describe for me but it is almost like when a tone is focused I can hear the center of it and immediately know where it is sitting as far as intonation.\u00a0 When a tone is really spread and open I feel like I have a hard time pinpointing that center of the tone if that makes sense.<\/p>\n With more open mouthpieces, I also experience a paradox in that even though the sound might be louder and bigger to my ear, I find it harder to hear myself in the mix of music.\u00a0 It’s like it is too big and spread all over the room.\u00a0 \u00a0When I play a more focused sax mouthpiece I can more easily hear myself in the mix of sound going on in the room.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n