{"id":59070,"date":"2019-06-22T11:01:34","date_gmt":"2019-06-22T15:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/?p=59070"},"modified":"2022-11-15T16:13:15","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T21:13:15","slug":"new-ny-meyer-alto-saxophone-mouthpiece-compared-to-a-vintage-ny-meyer-alto-sax-mouthpiece-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/2019\/06\/new-ny-meyer-alto-saxophone-mouthpiece-compared-to-a-vintage-ny-meyer-alto-sax-mouthpiece-review\/","title":{"rendered":"New NY Meyer Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece Compared to a Vintage NY Meyer Alto Sax Mouthpiece Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since I recently wrote a review for a new NY Meyer (2019) alto saxophone mouthpiece<\/a> as well as a vintage NY Meyer (1960’s) alto saxophone mouthpiece<\/a>, I thought it would be interesting to do a side by side review of these two great alto saxophone mouthpieces side by side.<\/p>\n

These are from the “mouthpiece fun box” that Jimmy Jensen at Tenor Madness<\/a> sent me with interesting and great mouthpieces he thought I would like to check out.\u00a0 Both of these alto mouthpieces have both been refaced by Jimmy.\u00a0 The vintage NY Meyer alto sax mouthpiece is refaced to a .071 and the new NY Meyer alto saxophone mouthpiece is refaced to a .074.\u00a0 Being that both alto mouthpieces have been refaced by the Jimmy Jensen and there is only a .003 difference in tip openings between each mouthpiece, I thought they would be good to compare to each other.<\/p>\n

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Side by Side-New NY Meyer on Left. Vintage NY Meyer on Right<\/strong><\/p>\n

I already anticipate some of you complaining that these are not original Meyer mouthpieces, and to do the comparison accurately, I would need original Meyer mouthpieces to compare.\u00a0 The truth is that even with original mouthpieces there are differences between each mouthpiece of the same model.\u00a0 I believe these two NY Meyer mouthpieces still retain the qualities that are consistent with each of the models as far as sound and tone and are worthy of\u00a0 comparison.<\/p>\n

I talked to Jimmy Jensen about these two mouthpieces and this is what he said about his work and refacing on them:<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve acquired facing measurements off of hundreds, possibly thousands of vintage pieces at this point. I save my favorite curves and put those on my pieces. So my vintage NY USA, I took the facing measurements from and I\u2019ve kept those true, just opened the tip because it was .067 stock.\u00a0 <\/em>On the new one I put the same facing numbers and table style on it as the vintage ones.\u00a0 <\/em>Essentially it\u2019s what I would expect to see on an untouched vintage NY USA Meyer.<\/em><\/p>\n

As far as vintage pieces, there\u2019s going to be variance no matter what. Rubber warps over time, you get dings, I rarely like a completely stock vintage piece. Usually they need just a tiny bit of freshening up. And I\u2019m a minimalist in my facing. I try to keep them as close to stock as possible, but playing well-Jimmy Jensen<\/em><\/p>\n

I have posted photos throughout this review of the new NY Meyer mouthpiece next to the vintage NY Meyer mouthpiece so that you can see how each mouthpiece looks and compares physically.<\/p>\n

The mouthpieces look pretty similar on first glance.\u00a0 Of course, the vintage NY Meyer mouthpiece is more faded and not as shiny as the new NY Meyer mouthpiece.\u00a0 The new NY Meyer body looks slightly larger in diameter than the vintage Meyer body.\u00a0 The beak also looks slightly thicker on the new mouthpiece from above but it is so close that I’m not 100% confident that I am correct.\u00a0 From the side, the new NY Meyer mouthpiece beak also looks a tad bit thicker than the vintage NY Meyer mouthpiece.<\/p>\n

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New NY Meyer Alto Mouthpiece Refaced By Jimmy Jensen to a .074 Tip Opening<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Vintage NY Meyer Alto Mouthpiece Refaced By Jimmy Jensen to a .071 Tip Opening<\/strong><\/p>\n

Next are the table comparisons.\u00a0 Both alto sax mouthpieces have been refaced as I mentioned above.\u00a0 The refacing process does affect the table but I will still write about what I see.\u00a0 The vintage NY Meyer mouthpiece has a thinner table than the new NY Meyer mouthpiece.\u00a0 It also looks like the window opening is slightly wider on the new NY Meyer alto sax mouthpiece than\u00a0 on the vintage NY Meyer mouthpiece.\u00a0 Both tables look to be the same length and both sax mouthpieces as a whole look to be the same length.<\/p>\n

The engraving on the shank of the vintage NY Meyer mouthpiece has “New York USA” on the top of the shank and on the bottom is engraved “medium chamber”.\u00a0 The new NY Meyer alto mouthpiece has “Made in USA” on the top of the shank and “NEW YORK” on the bottom.\u00a0 The new NY Meyer also has a serial number engraved on the right side of the body as you look at it from the table side of the mouthpiece.<\/p>\n

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New NY Meyer Alto Mouthpiece Refaced By Jimmy Jensen to a .074 Tip Opening<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Vintage NY Meyer Alto Mouthpiece Refaced By Jimmy Jensen to a .071 Tip Opening<\/strong><\/p>\n

The baffle areas of both NY Meyer mouthpieces look very similar to my eye. I think the baffle on the new NY Meyer is slightly wider than the vintage model but the rollover and angle of descent down into the chamber looks almost identical.\u00a0 The vintage NY Meyer mouthpiece might have a slightly more gradual curve of the baffle but it is hard to tell by eye.\u00a0 They both look very similar.<\/p>\n

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New NY Meyer Alto Mouthpiece Refaced By Jimmy Jensen to a .074 Tip Opening<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Vintage NY Meyer Alto Mouthpiece Refaced By Jimmy Jensen to a .071 Tip Opening<\/strong><\/p>\n

The tip rails and beginning of the baffle on each NY Meyer alto sax mouthpiece also look almost identical.\u00a0 I can’t see any difference at all with my eye.\u00a0 This exact similarity is probably due to Jimmy Jensen’s preferences in refacing tip rails and the baffle area.<\/p>\n

The mouthpiece chambers are where I see the biggest difference between these two NY Meyer alto mouthpieces.\u00a0 As you can clearly see in the pictures below, the new NY Meyer mouthpiece has a thinner roof to the chamber and a deeper cavity at the bottom of the chamber than the vintage NY Link alto mouthpiece.\u00a0 This makes the chamber of the new NY Meyer mouthpiece larger than the vintage NY Meyer mouthpiece.<\/p>\n

I’ll get into the differences in sound and playability below but I will say that, in general, I preferred the focus and core sound of the vintage NY Meyer mouthpiece over the fatter more spread tone of the new NY Meyer alto sax mouthpieces.\u00a0 If I had to guess at the reason for this difference, I would guess that it is the difference in mouthpiece chamber size and shape.<\/p>\n

Since these alto mouthpieces are only .003 difference in tip opening and the baffles look pretty identical next to each other, I would guess that this difference can be attributed to the chambers.\u00a0 The smaller more round chamber of the vintage Meyer mouthpiece keeps the sound focused while the larger chamber of the new NY Meyer mouthpiece fattens and spreads the sound more.\u00a0 This is my opinion anyways……..<\/p>\n

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New NY Meyer Alto Mouthpiece Refaced By Jimmy Jensen to a .074 Tip Opening<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Vintage NY Meyer Alto Mouthpiece Refaced By Jimmy Jensen to a .071 Tip Opening<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have provided two sound clips of both NY Meyer alto sax mouthpieces below.\u00a0 One is a new clip of the new NY Meyer alto saxophone mouthpiece refaced by Jimmy Jensen that I haven’t recorded or released until now.<\/p>\n

The other clip is of the vintage NY Meyer alto sax mouthpiece that I used in the original review of that sax mouthpiece.\u00a0 I actually recorded the two clips one after the other so there is a lot of similar material in each sound clip.\u00a0 \u00a0The same Woodstone 3 1\/2 reed and Sumner Acousticut metal alto sax ligature was used on both mouthpieces to avoid any reed and ligature changes in sound.<\/p>\n

Both clips were recorded in the exact same location with the exact same equipment and settings.<\/p>\n

Here are some specific spots to listen for in the two recordings for comparison purposes:<\/p>\n