{"id":5626,"date":"2011-09-22T22:03:05","date_gmt":"2011-09-23T03:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/?p=5626"},"modified":"2014-01-16T14:58:38","modified_gmt":"2014-01-16T19:58:38","slug":"phil-tone-solstice-alto-saxophone-mouthpiece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/phil-tone-solstice-alto-saxophone-mouthpiece\/","title":{"rendered":"Phil-Tone Solstice Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a Phil-Tone Solstice alto saxophone mouthpiece.\u00a0 It used to be called the “West Coast” model but is now called the Solstice.\u00a0 It has a .076 tip opening.\u00a0 I have reviewed Phil Engleman’s mouthpieces before and every one has been excellent! Phil has just come out with a new website<\/a> and a few new mouthpiece models that I will review in the next few days.<\/p>\n

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

The Phil-Tone Solstice alto mouthpiece looks great right out of the box.\u00a0 The table, tip and rails look perfect.\u00a0 The engraving and logo is nothing fancy but it does the job.\u00a0 It has a slight rollover baffle the declines into what I would consider a small to medium chamber.\u00a0 The side walls are straight and not scooped like many Meyer type mouthpieces are.\u00a0 The baffles rollover is right near the tip and very slight.\u00a0 It does it’s job and then gets out of the way.<\/p>\n

Here is a description of the mouthpiece from the Phil-Tone website:<\/p>\n

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“A\u00a0solstice signals the change in the seasons, just as this mouthpiece marks a departure from the traditional jazz alto setup.\u00a0 The\u00a0Solstice harkens\u00a0to the days of the\u00a0\u201dWest Coast\u201d school of sound, made famous by such greats as Art Pepper, Lee Konitz, and\u00a0Paul Desmond.\u00a0\u00a0The sounds and styles of these greats inspired the creation of this mouthpiece.\u00a0 The Solstice has a rich core and a full harmonic palate, while also possessing a lively and lyrical quality.\u00a0 There have been several modern attempts to approach the West Coast sound but the majority leave the player with a stuffy, dull, and resistant piece. The Solstice plays open, full, and with ease.\u00a0 Its ringing, centered tone provides a unique avenue towards expression and opens the door to new possibilities.\u00a0 From flowing bossa novas, to the\u00a0jazz quartet standards,\u00a0to a beautiful, lyrical, emotional ballad\u2026the Solstice does it all..” <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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

I really enjoyed this mouthpieces a lot.\u00a0 I didn’t read the description on Phil’s site before I played it but the first thing I thought when I played it was “Paul Desmond”. \u00a0 I actually went into “Take 5” on the clip.\u00a0 Later when I went to his site and read that it was modeled after a west coast Paul Desmond type vibe I smiled.\u00a0 Phil did a great job with this.<\/p>\n

The tone is light and on the brighter side.\u00a0 It does indeed lean towards that Paul Desmond type sound.\u00a0 When I played it I felt like I should be smoking a cigarette and drinking a Martini\u00a0 (I’ve seen pictures of Desmond doing this).\u00a0 The tone has a dryness to it just like you associate with that west coast sound. \u00a0 The intonation was great and the sound was nice and even throughout the range of the horn.\u00a0 I did feel\u00a0 that if I pushed the air too much it would get too bright and edgy for my tastes.\u00a0 It reminded me of how a Selmer Soloist blows.\u00a0 If you play soft,medium and loud it is beautiful but if you push it too super loud it can get really bright.\u00a0 You have to really push it to the\u00a0 max to hear that though.\u00a0 To be honest, if you are in to that west coast Paul Desmond sound you probably wouldn’t push it like that anyways…………..<\/p>\n

This mouthpiece doesn’t get as big and fat sounding as some other alto mouthpieces I have played but it does what it does really well.\u00a0 To put it in perspective, I have played other mouthpieces that have reminded me of a Cannonball type sound.\u00a0 Big, fat and\u00a0 loud.\u00a0 Imagine Cannonball playing next to Desmond…………..\u00a0 One isn’t better than the other. They are just different.\u00a0 What you like and want to sound like depends on your personal preferences and tastes.<\/p>\n

I have played hundreds of alto mouthpieces and this is the closest to a Desmond sound I have ever come.\u00a0 Well done Phil!<\/p>\n

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These mouthpieces are very reasonably priced.\u00a0 Right now, I have 4 of my students playing on Phil’s pieces.\u00a0\u00a0 If you like the\u00a0 Phil-Tone Solstice alto saxophone sound then visit Phil Engleman’s website<\/a> and check one out for yourself! .<\/p>\n

Let me know what you think in the comments below. Thanks, Steve<\/p>\n

https:\/\/public.neffmusic.com\/PhilSolstice1.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a Phil-Tone Solstice alto saxophone mouthpiece.\u00a0 It used to be called the “West Coast” model but is now called the Solstice.\u00a0 It has a .076 tip opening.\u00a0 I have reviewed Phil Engleman’s mouthpieces before and every one has been excellent! Phil has just come out with a new website and a few new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":14611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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],"tags":[297,635,197,165,117],"class_list":{"0":"post-5626","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":"tag-alto-saxophone","10":"tag-paul-desmond","11":"tag-phil-engleman","12":"tag-phil-tone","13":"tag-sax-mouthpiece","14":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5626","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=5626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}