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<\/a><\/p>\nWestcoast Sax High Roller Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece with Clear Coat Vintage Finish<\/strong><\/p>\n Matt Lee has done a great job with this new High Roller alto saxophone mouthpiece.\u00a0 I think the vintage finish looks authentically vintage and great!\u00a0 The table, baffle, side rails and tip rails all look clean, precise and perfect to my eye.\u00a0 The 24K gold plated mouthpiece photos below look gorgeous also.<\/p>\n Westcoast Sax High Roller Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece with 24K Gold Plating<\/strong><\/p>\n In the past, Matt Lee has designed and created some great Westcoast Sax mouthpieces that I have reviewed here on the site (Past Westcoast Sax Mouthpiece Reviews<\/a>).\u00a0 \u00a0It was news to me when I saw Matt working on mouthpieces himself a few months ago and offering his refacing services on Facebook.\u00a0 I had no idea that he even had that skill set!\u00a0 I called Matt up about it and he said he had been refacing and designing mouthpiece since 2014 and was now using his own facing charts that he developed based on mouthpiece design and tip openings.<\/p>\n I’m always a bit skeptical about new mouthpiece craftsman and refacers who appear on the scene but after talking to Matt on the phone for over an hour about his mouthpiece journey and now playing this alto mouthpiece he has worked on, I am pretty confident that Matt knows what he is doing in regard to facing curves because this High Roller alto sax mouthpiece plays great!<\/p>\n Westcoast Sax High Roller Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n Here’s a description of the Westcoast Sax High Roller alto saxophone mouthpiece from the Westcoast Sax website<\/a>:<\/p>\n The Westcoast Sax High Roller Metal Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/span>\u00a0displays a vibrant sound with plenty of fullness from top to bottom. You will find this mouthpiece extremely versatile and expressive. The High Roller is a great option for the saxophonist that appreciates precision control, projection, and a warmer contemporary sound. The High Roller Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece comes in a (24K Gold, Rhodium, or Vintage Finish (FDA Compliant Clear Coat Epoxy Resin) and equipped with responsive rails, rollover baffle, and medium chamber. Matt Lee personally designs each and every saxophone mouthpiece. All WC Sax mouthpieces are CNC Made with (5 Axis Technology) for consistency and accuracy. The High Roller is proudly made in the USA. Each mouthpiece is play tested and checked before shipment.<\/em><\/p>\n Westcoast Sax High Roller Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n The High Roller alto saxophone mouthpiece has what I would consider a high long rollover type baffle.\u00a0 I have had readers of my blog comment that a true rollover baffle is one that has a rollover at the tip area but I call a baffle a rollover if I see a long rollover that runs longer on the baffle also.\u00a0 The baffle ends with a crescent shaped opening to a medium chamber.<\/p>\n In the past I have reviewed two Westcoast MOAM alto mouthpieces, a MOAM .081<\/a> and a MOAM .085<\/a>. \u00a0I don’t have those MOAM alto mouthpieces here in my collection anymore but based off of my memory, I believe the new High Roller alto saxophone mouthpiece is a bit warmer than the brighter MOAM mouthpieces while still keeping the focus and power that the MOAM mouthpieces had.<\/p>\n Westcoast Sax High Roller Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n I found the Westcoast Sax High Roller alto saxophone mouthpiece to be an incredible focused mouthpiece that had a lot of flexibility as far as volume.\u00a0 I could play it at a soft volume and it sounded sweet and complex but I could also push it for a loud projecting volume that was powerful.\u00a0 Many times, alto sax mouthpieces like this will get a lot brighter in relation to how loud you play them but I felt like the High Roller stayed in that “medium bright” tone without getting overly bright.<\/p>\n Westcoast Sax High Roller Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece with 24K Gold Plating<\/strong><\/p>\n I ended up using a Vandoren Java 2 1\/2 saxophone reed on this mouthpiece that, to my mind, is about as perfect of a reed as I could find.\u00a0 The .085 tip opening is a bit more open than my preferred alto mouthpiece tip opening of .080 but with the Java 2 1\/2 reed the .085 tip opening felt perfect.\u00a0 \u00a0I was actually surprised when Matt told me it was a .085 as it played so easily that I thought it was around an .080 tip opening.<\/p>\n Westcoast Sax High Roller Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n I’ve provided two samples of the same clip below. \u00a0One is a clip with added reverb and the other is a dry clip in a moderate sized room. \u00a0I think it’s important to add the reverb clip to brighter sounding mouthpieces just so people can get a sense of what the sound is like with a little bit of that added effect since the added reverb tend to soften the edge a bit.\u00a0 I personally enjoy the clip with reverb more but I thought the dry clip would be useful to those who want to know what the mouthpiece sounds like for me with no effects at all.<\/p>\n This clip is a bit longer than some of my other mouthpiece clips but that is just because I had so much fun playing this mouthpiece.\u00a0 \u00a0I tried to play a mix of different elements and styles as well as my go to Phil Wood’s solo from “The Summer Knows” that I have been playing on a lot of my alto sax mouthpiece clips lately (I learned this solo back in High School over 35 years ago!).\u00a0 I love that solo and figure that hearing the same lines and phrases on each clip might make it easier to make a decision on which alto sax mouthpiece you like the most.<\/p>\n Westcoast Sax High Roller Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n The altissimo on the Westcoast Sax High Roller was excellent.\u00a0 \u00a0I am a bit out of shape on my alto sax altissimo as I haven’t been playing much alto over the last few months but I tried to squeeze out a few altissimo notes for those of you who like those.<\/p>\n The tight core and focus of the tone make it really easy to manipulate the sound with bends, scoops and vibrato.\u00a0 The focused core tone has an intensity and energy to it while still being a bit warmer and smoother than comparable alto mouthpieces that can be quite edgy sounding when pushed to full volume.\u00a0 If you add just a few effects like reverb to this alto tone you have a warm contemporary alto sound that would be killin’ for smooth jazz and modern alto soloing in my opinion.<\/p>\n The other great quality about this mouthpiece is that it doesn’t get too bright when pushed in my opinion.\u00a0 I was adding some edge on the “Sanborn” sounding lines by hardening the bottom lip of my embouchure but if I kept that bottom lip nice and fat, then the tone sounded fatter and warmer.\u00a0 The High Roller has the volume to cut through on a gig but I could still play a jazz gig on this alto mouthpiece in my opinion.\u00a0 Check out the jazz lines in the sound clip and decide for yourself.<\/p>\n Westcoast Sax High Roller Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n Congratulations to Matt Lee and Westcoast Sax for creating the High Roller alto saxophone mouthpiece! If you are interested in the High Roller you can call Matt at: 951-805-5611 or Email: WestCoastSax@Yahoo.Com<\/a>. \u00a0You can also order directly from the Westcoast Sax website<\/a>,\u00a0Westcoast Sax Facebook<\/a> page or Matt Lee’s Facebook<\/a> page where he also has more audio samples and videos of this alto sax mouthpiece as well as the other mouthpiece models he offers.<\/p>\n Let me know your thoughts in the comments below and if you get a Westcoast Sax High Roller alto saxophone mouthpiece be sure to come back and let us know what you think in the comments below……..Thanks!!<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n\n
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