{"id":55888,"date":"2019-01-27T20:20:31","date_gmt":"2019-01-28T01:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/?p=55888"},"modified":"2022-11-16T12:22:08","modified_gmt":"2022-11-16T17:22:08","slug":"phil-barone-hollywood-8-tenor-sax-mouthpiece-refaced-by-mojobari","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/phil-barone-hollywood-8-tenor-sax-mouthpiece-refaced-by-mojobari\/","title":{"rendered":"Phil Barone Hollywood 8 Tenor Sax Mouthpiece Refaced by MojoBari"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, I am reviewing a unique Phil Barone<\/a> Hollywood 8 tenor saxophone mouthpiece that I had Keith Bradbury (Mojobari)<\/a> work on for me a number of years ago.\u00a0 I had originally bought this from a sax player who said it was his gigging mouthpiece for a number of years.\u00a0 The bite plate had some deep teeth marks in it that made it uncomfortable for me to play so I sent it to Keith Bradbury to have the bite plate replaced.\u00a0 I have had Keith repair a number of bite plates for me over the years and he always does a great job at a reasonable price so I felt comfortable sending this sax mouthpiece to him.\u00a0 As long as I was sending it to Keith for the bite plate, I also decided to have him do some other work on the mouthpiece also.<\/p>\n

First of all, for some reason this Barone Hollywood mouthpiece was incredibly tight on my saxophone neck cork.\u00a0 I have had and still have many Barone mouthpieces in my collection and many of them have been quite snug on the neck cork but this Hollywood mouthpiece was super tight!\u00a0 Every time I tried to use it, it would completely squash my cork down so any other sax mouthpiece would no longer fit on the cork.\u00a0 I asked Keith if he could expand out the bore to be more of an average sized mouthpiece bore like a typical metal Florida Otto Link.\u00a0 I asked that he only do this for the first 3\/4 of an inch into the shank because that is where the mouthpiece needed to be to be in tune and I didn’t want more of the bore taken away as that might change the chamber size and sound.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Barone Hollywood 8 Tenor Sax Mouthpiece Refaced by MojoBari<\/strong><\/p>\n

I also got a bit more adventurous by asking Keith to put a facing curve on this Hollywood mouthpiece that would match the facing curve of my Jon Van Wie refaced Otto Link<\/a> mouthpiece (Here is Jon Van Wie’s description of this mouthpiece<\/a> in his own words). I had bought the JVW metal Link mouthpiece years ago and it was my main gigging saxophone mouthpiece for many years.\u00a0 JVW had refaced this modern metal Otto Link and put his own baffle into it before I bought it and the JVW Link had what I thought of as a perfect blend of a jazzy traditional (although brighter….) Otto Link sound with the ability to get a convincing modern Brecker type sound out of it.\u00a0 I noticed that the Barone Hollywood mouthpiece baffle was similar in size and shape to my JVW mouthpiece baffle so I wanted to see if it would play similarly on my saxophone if it had a similar facing curve.<\/p>\n

The main reason for wanting to do this is that I have had multiple surgeries on my brain over the years and had a hard time playing the same 3 1\/2 saxophone reeds I use to use throughout the 90’s.\u00a0 I would get excruciating headaches when trying to play those harder reeds on my sax. (Turns out that I had elevated intracranial pressure in my head but that is a different story<\/a>…….) The JVW Link mouthpiece played with loads of power with a Green box Vandoren Java 2 1\/2 saxophone reed.\u00a0 It was easy for me to play and I didn’t feel like I had to blow my brains out to get the volume I needed on my sax.\u00a0 If I could get the Barone Hollywood mouthpiece to play like that also then I would have two sax mouthpieces I could choose from.<\/p>\n

This was a bit of a gamble though.\u00a0 The JVW Otto Link mouthpiece had a unique curve on it.\u00a0 First,\u00a0 it was a shorter curve of 48, but secondly it also had a steeper curve at one point in comparison to most traditional tenor saxophone mouthpiece curves.\u00a0 My theory was that this steeper part of the curve would make softer reeds feel harder and more resistant as the reed had to bend over that steeper section of the curve. The strange thing about the JVW Link mouthpiece is that the only saxophone reeds I had found to work well on it for me were Green Vandoren Java 2 1\/2 saxophone reeds.\u00a0 That is it.\u00a0 Every other saxophone reed was too stiff, too harsh, too edgy, too stuffy, etc…….You get the point, but put a Java 2 1\/2 saxophone reed on and the JVW Link mouthpiece could wail!\u00a0 I have no doubt that the reason behind this was that original JVW mouthpiece facing curve.\u00a0 Put that same 2 1\/2 java saxophone reed on most other sax mouthpieces and it would feel like a wet noodle. On the JVW Otto Link mouthpiece it was perfect!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Barone Hollywood 8 Tenor Sax Mouthpiece Refaced by MojoBari<\/strong><\/p>\n

To be honest, I did detect some resistance from Keith Bradbury about putting the JVW curve on the Barone Hollywood mouthpiece.\u00a0 In fact, I had another mouthpiece maker put a similar curve on another Otto Link years before this and he had the same reservations. I would receive emails like “Are you sure?”\u00a0 “This curve is not the best.”\u00a0 “This curve is not optimal.” “There will be a lot of resistance with this curve….”\u00a0 “Are you sure?” etc…….Keith basically made similar statements and asked similar questions as these but after I reassured him he said\u00a0 “Ok, if that is what you like, lets go for it…..”<\/p>\n

In the end, it turned out that although Keith Bradbury got close to copying the JVW facing curve he couldn’t copy the curve exactly.\u00a0 From what I understand, to get it exactly, he would have had to close the mouthpiece down and then open it back up but there was not enough material at the tip to accommodate that much work on the mouthpiece.\u00a0 The curve was close, but in the end, was not the exact curve as my JVW Otto Link mouthpiece.\u00a0 I had to except it, nothing more could be done.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Barone Hollywood 8 Tenor Sax Mouthpiece Refaced by MojoBari<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I received the Barone Hollywood mouthpiece back and first tried it, I found it to be very bright, brittle, and edgy sounding.\u00a0 I did not like it at all!\u00a0 Keith had done a great job on the bite plate and the shank resizing but playing the mouthpiece was just over the top bright and edgy for me.\u00a0 I must admit that I was a bit disappointed.\u00a0 I sadly put the Barone Hollywood mouthpiece in the back of my mouthpiece drawer.\u00a0 That was more than three years ago.\u00a0 It sat in the back of my drawer for 3+ years silently biding it’s time…………..<\/p>\n

A couple of days ago, I saw the Barone Hollywood mouthpiece hiding in the back of my drawer and decided to give it another run.\u00a0 I wiped the dust off of it, put a used Vandoren Java 2 1\/2 on it (I am all out of new Vandoren Java reeds and am too cheap to buy more…….), put the Hollywood on my saxophone and played.\u00a0 My first reaction was that the tone was still really bright and edgy but then I thought about my JVW Otto Link mouthpiece and how bright and edgy that can be when I first play it when coming from a different saxophone mouthpiece.\u00a0 It can be obnoxiously bright when you come right from another mouthpiece but after I play it for a little bit the JVW mouthpiece warms right up!<\/p>\n

I decided to spend some more time with the Barone Hollywood mouthpiece and see what would happen.\u00a0 Sure enough, it smoothed out and fattened up for me just like the JVW mouthpiece does within 10-15 minutes.\u00a0 I know that nothing related to the mouthpiece is changing during those 15 minutes, but it sure does feel like it.\u00a0 I think while I am playing, I am making slight alterations which are affecting how the mouthpiece sounds and responds.\u00a0 The main adjustments that I am conscious of are: 1.) I tend to fatten up my bottom lip and 2.) I blow what seems like a fatter fuller column of air.<\/p>\n

The fatter bottom lip seems to dull the edge and take some of the brightness out of the tone and the stronger fatter air stream makes the tone sound fatter and smoother to my ear.\u00a0 \u00a0Obviously, I am not sure my air column actually gets fatter but I use that word because when I play this way I feel like my neck and throat area puff out more.\u00a0 I tend to do these two things on every high baffle saxophone mouthpiece I play for the same reasons I have just listed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Barone Hollywood 8 Tenor Sax Mouthpiece Refaced by MojoBari<\/strong><\/p>\n

The refaced Barone Hollywood is definitely on the brighter side of saxophone tone as you can hear in the clips below.\u00a0 Like my JVW Link mouthpiece, I find that if I play at a soft to medium volume I can get a respectable Otto Link tone out of the Barone Hollywood mouthpiece.\u00a0 When I push the air through the mouthpiece faster,\u00a0 it is hard to keep that brightness and volume in check though.\u00a0 It kind of kicks into overdrive at about 60% air flow and at 90% air flow I think it can rip the roof off a mobile home if pointed in that direction.<\/p>\n

Keith Bradbury must have gotten close enough to the JVW mouthpiece curve because the Java 2 1\/2 reed felt great on the refaced Barone Hollywood mouthpiece.\u00a0 I played it for a few hours.\u00a0 It was easy enough for me to play and blow and there was just enough resistance to blow against that I could easily shape and mold the tone as I played without giving myself a headache.<\/p>\n

As a side note, I did notice that the refaced Barone Hollywood mouthpiece was easy to push into that coarse split tone saxophone affect.\u00a0 You can hear it a few times on the demo below.\u00a0 Most of the time, it was unintentional on my part.\u00a0 I would play a note with full air and get that raspy split tone effect easily.\u00a0 Usually when I got it, I would play the note again to see if I could get rid of it and I always could so it must be related to something I was doing but as of this point I am not exactly sure what I was doing to cause it or if I can make it happen on cue.\u00a0 The split tone definitely is easier to get than on most of the other sax mouthpieces I have reviewed so maybe it is something to do with the baffle, soft reed and how I am playing.\u00a0 Regardless of all that, I really like the affect and think it sounds pretty tough sounding………<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Barone Hollywood 8 Tenor Sax Mouthpiece Refaced by MojoBari<\/strong><\/p>\n

Keith did excellent work on the Barone Hollywood tip rail as it matches the reeds exactly.\u00a0 He also nailed the bore enlargement as it slides on the cork with the perfect amount of tightness.\u00a0 As you can see from the pics, he also did a great job with replacing the white bite plate .<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Barone Hollywood 8 Tenor Sax Mouthpiece Refaced by MojoBari<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the sound clips below, I try to give a good range and variety of sounds and textures so that you can hear the mouthpiece perform in different styles.\u00a0 I do tend to lean towards the louder funkier altissimo lines but I think that is the nature of the mouthpiece and it kind of pulls me in that direction.\u00a0 As usual, I have included one clip that has reverb so you can get an idea of how the mouthpiece would sound in a large room like your garage and a clip that is dry so you can hear how it would sound if you practiced in your bedroom closet (I’ve had to do that in the past….Haha!)<\/p>\n

The altissimo is easy to play and the mouthpiece can really scream up in the altissimo range when you really push it.\u00a0 At the same time, you can hear me back off the volume a little bit and hear how the lines mellow out and normalize a bit.<\/p>\n

Part of what I love most about the JVW Link\u00a0 mouthpiece is it’s incredibly focused tone. The refaced Barone Hollywood mouthpiece has that same concentrated focus also.\u00a0 It is not spread in tone at all.\u00a0 In my experience, this super focused tone sounds killer through a mic in a loud band.\u00a0 The focus just cuts through all the other sounds and seems to travel right through everything.\u00a0 I have gotten the opposite affect from really spread sounding saxophone mouthpieces.\u00a0 A mouthpiece could have the loudest fattest saxophone tone ever, but when I play it in a loud band of electronic instruments the sound seems to be swallowed up and lost before I can hear it if it isn’t focused.<\/p>\n

The scale and range of the tenor sax seems really even and smooth in timbre to my ear also.\u00a0 \u00a0Someone asked the other day on Facebook why so many sax players insist on playing so fast when trying out a sax mouthpiece.\u00a0 I can’t answer for them, but for me, playing fast is a way to test the smoothness and evenness of tone throughout the range of the saxophone.\u00a0 Mouthpieces that are very balanced and even in tone throughout the range of the saxophone will tend to play like “butter” when played fast.\u00a0 What I mean by “butter” is that you can hear each note but they blend together so smoothly that it is like a blur of sound which is “smooth as butter”.\u00a0 I love that and feel like I actually play faster when I hear it happening.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Barone Hollywood 8 Tenor Sax Mouthpiece Refaced by MojoBari<\/strong><\/p>\n

This review is a bit different in nature in that I am reviewing a saxophone mouthpiece that has been altered from the condition it was in when it left Phil Barone’s hands. I will admit that having a mouthpiece altered by someone other than the living mouthpiece maker is usually something I wouldn’t do. When you have a Barone,\u00a0 Guardala, Lamberson, Freddie Gregory, etc…..altered by someone else it is basically no longer that brand in my mind.\u00a0 It may look like that brand but when the facing curve, tip area and baffle are changed in any way you are basically changing the sound and response of the mouthpiece.\u00a0 I usually tell people not to mess with these brands if they don’t like them.\u00a0 Just sell them as is because someone looking for a Barone, Guardala or Freddie Gregory will feel good about buying your piece if it is original.\u00a0 If it is a mix of different people’s work then it is harder for the buyer to fully understand what he might be purchasing and I think it will be harder to sell.<\/p>\n

Of course, in this instance, I didn’t heed my own advice.\u00a0 I didn’t really care about the resale value or making my money back.\u00a0 All I was thinking about was the possibility of having another mouthpiece like my beloved JVW Otto Link mouthpiece.\u00a0 Sometimes as artists we have to follow our hearts……<\/p>\n

I have to give a shout out to Phil Barone who makes incredibly great saxophone mouthpieces. Last I heard, he was not making mouthpieces anymore but who knows, maybe he will make them again in the future.\u00a0 Right now, I have this Barone Hollywood, a Barone Jazz, a Barone NY (this was also refaced before I got it) and a Barone SNY model in my possession.\u00a0 These are some of the best mouthpieces out there!\u00a0 For more information on Barone mouthpiece you can visit www.philbarone.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Also want to acknowledge the great work of Keith Bradbury (Mojobari) who is a true craftsman and artist in his own right. Keith is about as exact as you can get when it comes to mouthpiece work. When I sent him the Barone Hollywood he sent me back scientific graphs of the JVW curve, the Hollywood curve divided by left and right rail, the actual final curve the mouthpiece ended up with and a whole hell of a lot of numbers that I didn’t understand in the least.\u00a0 My only thought was “Wow, this guy really knows his stuff and is really into this!!”\u00a0 If you want to find out more about Keith Bradbury and his work you can go to his site at Mojomouthpiecework.com<\/a> or even go to his MojoBari Youtube channel<\/a> and find out how to do all of this mouthpiece work yourself!<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, I have a pretty cool and unique mouthpiece sitting here and I am very happy with how it turned out.\u00a0Thanks to Phil Barone and Keith Bradbury for your craftsmanship and years of service to the saxophone community!<\/p>\n

If you have any thoughts or comments I would love to hear what you think in the comment section below.\u00a0 Thanks,\u00a0 \u00a0Steve<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/cdn.neffmusic.com\/2019\/SHBaroneRev.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Barone 8 Hollywood Tenor Sax Mouthpiece Refaced by MojoBari-Vandoren Java 2 1\/2 Reed-Reverb<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/cdn.neffmusic.com\/2019\/SHBaroneDry.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Barone 8 Hollywood Tenor Sax Mouthpiece Refaced by MojoBari-Vandoren Java 2 1\/2 Reed-Dry Recording<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I bought the Barone Hollywood 8 tenor saxophone mouthpiece reviewed above used on SOTW (Sax on the Web) years ago and paid Keith Bradbury his going rate to work on it for me. 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 a unique Phil Barone Hollywood 8 tenor saxophone mouthpiece that I had Keith Bradbury (Mojobari) work on for me a number of years ago.\u00a0 I had originally bought this from a sax player who said it was his gigging mouthpiece for a number of years.\u00a0 The bite plate had some deep […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":55889,"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":[487,1119,45],"tags":[1805,298,1807,1806,658,117,265],"class_list":{"0":"post-55888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mouthpiece-reviews","8":"category-tenor-high-baffle-reviews","9":"category-tenor-mouthpieces","10":"tag-barone","11":"tag-hollywood","12":"tag-keith-bradbury","13":"tag-mojobari","14":"tag-review","15":"tag-sax-mouthpiece","16":"tag-tenor-saxophone","17":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55888","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=55888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}