{"id":6721,"date":"2013-01-08T22:52:43","date_gmt":"2013-01-09T03:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/?p=6721"},"modified":"2014-01-16T14:54:59","modified_gmt":"2014-01-16T19:54:59","slug":"pms-guardala-brecker-ii-fat-boy-tenor-mouthpiece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/2013\/01\/pms-guardala-brecker-ii-fat-boy-tenor-mouthpiece\/","title":{"rendered":"PMS Guardala Brecker II Fat Boy Tenor Mouthpiece"},"content":{"rendered":"

OK,\u00a0\u00a0 It looks like January is high baffle, powerhouse, mouthpieces on steroids month so far.\u00a0 For this review I’m playing a PMS Michael Brecker II Fat Boy Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece.\u00a0 Now, if that long name confuses you, you are not alone.\u00a0 Anything connected to Dave Guardala is going to be a bit confusing\u00a0 (I won’t go into details……….but he wound up in some trouble for ripping people off and had to spend some time in jail………Let’s leave it at that)<\/p>\n

Supposedly, Mr. Guardala sold the rights to his mouthpieces to WWBW and they started manufacturing them and selling them on the WWBW site but……..soon after I saw Guardala mouthpieces being offered by a company in Germany called PMS.\u00a0 I don’t know all the legal\u00a0 behind the scenes details but……WWBW is still selling their Guardala mouthpieces and PMS is still selling their Guardala mouthpieces.\u00a0\u00a0 The mouthpiece I am reviewing today is from Germany and is a PMS mouthpiece.<\/p>\n

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PMS Guardala Brecker II Fat Boy Tenor Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

The mouthpiece is called a MB II which is for Michael Brecker II.\u00a0\u00a0 Dave Guardala made many mouthpieces and the one he is most famous for making is the one Michael Brecker used.\u00a0 This is a version of that mouthpiece.\u00a0 Is it exact?\u00a0\u00a0 I have no idea………. I’ll just offer my review.<\/p>\n

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PMS Guardala Brecker II Fat Boy Tenor Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The mouthpiece looks great!\u00a0 It is a beautiful gold and is engraved with “Fat Boy” on the top of the piece.\u00a0 As I compare it to another PMS Guardala, is is indeed fatter and seems to weigh more than a regular Guardala made by PMS.\u00a0 The regular Guardala’s have a rounded top but the “Fat Boy’s”\u00a0 have a peak at the top of the mouthpiece that gives it a different and unique shape.\u00a0 The baffle is long and runs at a gradual decline until it slopes down into the chamber.\u00a0
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

The rails, baffle and table look beautiful and perfect but……… the tip on this piece\u00a0 doesn’t really match the reeds.\u00a0 The corners slope off faster than the reeds do.\u00a0 I tried Rigotti Golds and Vandoren Java’s and found this problem with both.\u00a0 I like my reeds to line right up with the tip of a mouthpiece so when I put the reed on and it didn’t line up I think it irritated that part of me that is a little OCD.\u00a0 This kind of thing might not effect playing at all but I am just used to it so it rubbed me the wrong way.\u00a0 (PMS might have shaped there tip using another brand of reed that slopes faster in the corners………..)<\/p>\n

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PMS Guardala Brecker II Fat Boy Tenor Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Guardala MB II played great with a Rigotti Gold 2 1\/2 medium reed.\u00a0 At first,\u00a0 I tried a new Vandoren Java 2 1\/2 and it was way too soft for me.\u00a0\u00a0 I tried to record a clip but I couldn’t even get through it because the reed was so soft.\u00a0 The Rigottt Gold was just the right strength and offered just enough resistance to feel comfortable.<\/p>\n

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PMS Guardala Brecker II Fat Boy Tenor Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

I won’t lie to you…….the Guardala Michael Brecker II is not a dark mouthpiece.\u00a0 It is definitely on the brighter side of the spectrum of saxophone sound.\u00a0\u00a0 I think you can hear it in the sound clip.\u00a0 I kept wanting to morph into my old Michael Brecker licks but I tried not to (you might hear one or two………….)<\/p>\n

The strength of a good Guardala is the focus it has.\u00a0\u00a0 It has a very tight focus and core to the sound.\u00a0\u00a0 When you play it feels like a laser beam of sound is coming out of the bell and pointing straight at the mic.\u00a0 Other mouthpieces without this focus feel more like a wave of sound is coming out of the bell.<\/p>\n

The PMS Guardala Michael Brecker II also has more volume because of that higher baffle.\u00a0 When you blow full force it really opens up and gets LOUD!\u00a0\u00a0 You have to be careful or you might damage your hearing……\u00a0\u00a0 The downside of the high baffle is that the tone isn’t as thick or full as a lower baffle mouthpiece.<\/p>\n

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PMS Guardala Brecker II Fat Boy Tenor Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let me know what you think in the comments below. Thanks, Steve<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/public.neffmusic.com\/PMSFB.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

PMS Guardala Brecker II Fat Boy Tenor Mouthpiece<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/public.neffmusic.com\/PMSFBReverb.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Same clip with 30% reverb\u00a0 and a little EQ<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

OK,\u00a0\u00a0 It looks like January is high baffle, powerhouse, mouthpieces on steroids month so far.\u00a0 For this review I’m playing a PMS Michael Brecker II Fat Boy Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece.\u00a0 Now, if that long name confuses you, you are not alone.\u00a0 Anything connected to Dave Guardala is going to be a bit confusing\u00a0 (I won’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":14667,"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":[1119,45],"tags":[770,771,35,772,68,265],"class_list":{"0":"post-6721","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tenor-high-baffle-reviews","8":"category-tenor-mouthpieces","9":"tag-dave-guardala","10":"tag-fat-boy","11":"tag-michael-brecker","12":"tag-pms","13":"tag-tenor-mouthpiece","14":"tag-tenor-saxophone","15":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6721","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=6721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.neffmusic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}