{"id":59072,"date":"2019-06-15T10:53:24","date_gmt":"2019-06-15T14:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/?p=59072"},"modified":"2022-11-16T12:06:43","modified_gmt":"2022-11-16T17:06:43","slug":"vintage-new-york-meyer-usa-4m-alto-saxophone-mouthpiece-refaced-by-jimmy-jensen-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/2019\/06\/vintage-new-york-meyer-usa-4m-alto-saxophone-mouthpiece-refaced-by-jimmy-jensen-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Vintage New York Meyer USA 4M Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece Refaced By Jimmy Jensen Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, I’m lucky to be able to play and review a vintage New York Meyer medium chamber alto saxophone mouthpiece.\u00a0 Jimmy Jensen at Tenor Madness was nice enough to send me what he called a “mouthpiece funbox”.\u00a0 This was a box of special and unique mouthpieces that Jimmy thought I might find interesting.\u00a0 Among the nine mouthpieces sent was this gem of an alto mouthpiece. A vintage New York Meyer 4M alto sax mouthpiece that Jimmy Jensen refaced to a .071 tip opening.<\/p>\n

Jimmy told me that this has been his main alto saxophone mouthpiece for the last five years which made me incredibly nervous to be borrowing it.\u00a0 It is one thing if this was a sax mouthpiece sitting in his drawer for 40 years but this is his main alto sax mouthpiece he was sending me to try out. I have been handling it with “kid gloves” as I\u00a0 want to get it back to Jimmy in the same condition as it came to me.<\/p>\n

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Vintage New York Meyer USA 4M Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece Refaced By Jimmy Jensen<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a lot of talk on the internet about these vintage New York Meyer alto saxophone mouthpieces.\u00a0 \u00a0If you are lucky enough to find one of these for sale you will probably have to pay a hefty price for it (I have seen sellers asking 1000-3000 for one of these…….) Here is how Theo Wanne describes these vintage NY Meyer alto sax mouthpieces on the “mouthpiece museum<\/a>” page of his great website at theowanne.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

1960 MEYER NEW YORK USA \u2013 EARLY MODEL<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n

The\u00a0NYUSA mouthpieces retained the deeply rounded inner-side-walls of the Meyer Bros. mouthpieces.<\/em><\/p>\n

The\u00a0body of these mouthpieces got thinner. The thin body produced a very nice resonance but sacrificed the solidity inherent to the Meyer Brothers mouthpieces. \u00a0Many players prefer this resonant quality though.<\/em><\/p>\n

The baffle on these rolled up all the way to the very tip of the mouthpiece, leaving almost no tip rail. \u00a0This also added to the slightly brighter sound.<\/em><\/p>\n

The finish work on the baffle of these mouthpieces is impeccable, true masters refaced these. \u00a0This impeccable finish work is part of the reason these mouthpieces play so well.<\/em><\/p>\n

1970 MEYER NEW YORK USA \u2013 LATE\u00a0MODEL<\/strong><\/em><\/h2>\n

These mouthpieces look identical on the outside to the earlier New York USA models.\u00a0 Inside they are very different. They have less of the rounded inner side-wall than the earlier model but do retain the same amount of baffle.\u00a0 The interior finish work is good, but not as good as the earlier model. \u00a0This interior design is the same as the later \u2018Made in USA\u2019 model.<\/em><\/p>\n

I’m not completely sure which year Meyer mouthpiece this is but Jimmy Jensen thinks it is probably the 60’s model because of the substantial rollover baffle near the tip.<\/p>\n

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Vintage New York Meyer USA 4M Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece Refaced By Jimmy Jensen<\/strong><\/p>\n

The vintage NY Meyer USA 4M sax mouthpiece looked to be in good shape.\u00a0 The tip rail and side rails look blemish free and even.\u00a0 The baffle looked smooth and symmetrical. The table looked flat and problem free also.\u00a0 There are slight tooth indentations under the mouthpiece patch on the beak of the mouthpiece but these are not noticeable when playing with the patch.<\/p>\n

The mouthpiece was refaced by Jimmy Jensen to a .071 tip opening.\u00a0 This is a bit smaller than my preferred alto mouthpiece tip opening of .078-.080 and felt smaller to me as I played it. When I first started playing it, the mouthpiece felt like I couldn’t blow all my air through the tip opening.\u00a0 Almost like it wasn’t big enough for me.\u00a0 After playing the mouthpiece for a few hours however, I didn’t really notice this feeling anymore and it felt very comfortable for me.<\/p>\n

I had to use a harder saxophone reed because of the smaller tip opening and I found an Ishimori Woodstone 3 1\/2 alto sax reed that worked great on this alto mouthpiece.\u00a0 To keep the vintage vibe,\u00a0 I also used a vintage Sumner Acousticut metal alto sax ligature that I had lying in my ligature drawer.<\/p>\n

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Vintage New York Meyer USA 4M Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece Refaced By Jimmy Jensen<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before I get into how this vintage NY Meyer alto sax mouthpiece played, I want to convey how excited I was to play one of these.\u00a0 I played one about 16-20 years ago that Bob Ackerman had for sale that was pretty amazing sounding. Bob was willing to sell it to me for 400 bucks but even back then, I thought it was way too expensive.<\/p>\n

There is all sorts of talk on the internet about how there is something special and unique about the hard rubber these are made from.\u00a0 People proclaim that this hard rubber has special resonant qualities that are impossible to attain with the formula for todays hard rubber mouthpieces.\u00a0 I have no idea if this is true or not, but can only write about my experience playing this specific NY Meyer mouthpiece.<\/p>\n

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Vintage New York Meyer USA 4M Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece Refaced By Jimmy Jensen<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first thing I noticed about the tone of this New York Meyer alto saxophone mouthpiece was how focused it sounded.\u00a0 This is probably one of the most focused alto sax mouthpieces I have played.\u00a0 I also felt like the focus and core of the tone stayed locked in even when playing at louder volumes. On many modern Meyers I have played, I felt like the tone got a bit more spread and brash when I played at full volume.\u00a0 This NY Meyer stay nice and focused at all volumes whether playing soft or at full volume.<\/p>\n

The other characteristic I loved about this sax mouthpiece is the bright sizzle and sparkle it has in the tone.\u00a0 It has a bright crispness to the tone that makes it very beautiful and sweet to my ear.\u00a0 It also has a ton of character and expression in the tone that I loved.\u00a0 \u00a0That sweetness even inspired me to take out some of my old classical sax solos to play before I wrote this review.\u00a0 My classical chops are not what they used to be, but I had a great time using this NY Meyer alto mouthpiece for that kind of style and vibe.\u00a0 It’s not a dark sounding alto mouthpiece but I thought it sounded great!<\/p>\n

This vintage NY Meyer alto mouthpiece made it very easy to manipulate and mold the tone also.\u00a0 I found it easy to bend the notes as well as adding vibrato.\u00a0 \u00a0I also felt the the focused core to the tone made it easier to hear the pitch and intonation.\u00a0 On more spread mouthpieces, I sometimes find it hard to find the center of the pitch within that tone.\u00a0 With this mouthpiece I felt like the tight core sound made it a lot easier to hear where the pitch center was while playing.<\/p>\n

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Vintage New York Meyer USA 4M Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece Refaced By Jimmy Jensen<\/strong><\/p>\n

The question that you might find yourself asking is whether a vintage NY Meyer is worth the crazy prices people are paying for them.\u00a0 Are they that much better than modern Meyer alto sax mouthpieces or the new NY Meyer alto mouthpieces that came out this year (2019).\u00a0 I can’t speak for all vintage NY Meyer mouthpieces but I can say that this alto mouthpiece is without a doubt the best Meyer alto mouthpiece I have played in my opinion.<\/p>\n

Is it the vintage hard rubber formula, the way these old NY Meyers were designed and made, or just Jimmy Jensen’s incredible facing work on this mouthpiece?\u00a0 I can’t say.\u00a0 There is a large part of my mind that wonders about the hard rubber though.\u00a0 There is a special resonance and depth of tone that this piece has that makes me wonder. I know many of you are skeptics so I will end my thoughts there, but who knows, maybe there is something to these vintage hard rubber theories out there………<\/p>\n

If you like the sound of this vintage NY Meyer alto saxophone mouthpiece, all I can say is start saving your money………\u00a0 These are hard to find and even harder to pay for once you find one. Maybe you will get lucky, you never know.\u00a0 \u00a0 If you play one or have any comments you would like to share, I would love to hear what you think in the comment section below.\u00a0 Special thanks to Jimmy Jensen for letting me borrow this great mouthpiece of his.\u00a0 \u00a0 Thanks,\u00a0 Steve<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/cdn.neffmusic.com\/2019\/VintNYMeyer.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Vintage New York Meyer USA 4M Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece Refaced By Jimmy Jensen<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I borrowed this Vintage New York Meyer USA 4M alto saxophone mouthpiece reviewed above from a fan of my site and will be returning the mouthpiece after the review. 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’m lucky to be able to play and review a vintage New York Meyer medium chamber alto saxophone mouthpiece.\u00a0 Jimmy Jensen at Tenor Madness was nice enough to send me what he called a “mouthpiece funbox”.\u00a0 This was a box of special and unique mouthpieces that Jimmy thought I might find interesting.\u00a0 Among the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":60981,"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":[297,716,1865,158,629,658,1866,214],"class_list":{"0":"post-59072","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-jazz-sax","12":"tag-jimmy-jensen","13":"tag-meyer","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-review","16":"tag-usa","17":"tag-vintage","18":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59072","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=59072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}