Klarinet Archive - Posting 000304.txt from 2006/10

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Re: Kinda OT: Saxophone Mouthpieces?
Date: Thu, 19 Oct 2006 22:27:21 -0400

At 08:31 AM 10/19/2006 -0400, Karl Krelove wrote:
>(Getting even farther off topic) Bill,
>
>I only have experience with one Meyer 5M tenor sax mouthpiece (the one I
>bought years ago). I didn't try any others out when I bought it - I needed
>it in a hurry and I ordered it from the vendor that was supplying our school
>loaner program at the time. I find that it plays very sharp - I have to pull
>it almost to the end of the neck to play a concert Bb in tune and, I guess
>because of how it sits around the neck that far back, the low register gets
>progressively sharper and unresponsive. I thought it was the instrument (a
>very old Conn) until a year or so ago when I got hold of a couple of S80s
>and a new C* and none had the same problems - tuning and low register are
>like a different horn. I also own a single Meyer 5M alto mouthpiece, which I
>use interchangeably with an old C*, and I have no problem with either on the
>alto (but the Meyer plays louder). In your experience is this sharpness a
>general problem with Meyer 5x tenor mouthpieces or is it just mine?

I have a Meyer 6M for tenor, but I don't like it for other reasons (a
facing correction is probably needed). It does not show any particular
tuning discrepancies. Your mouthpiece may have issues, although I can't
imagine what. My alto 5M does not tune badly at all, but my Selmer
Soloist-style C* tunes BETTER in the palm keys on my Mark VI, so I have
gone back to it. I usually use the same reeds with either, but have to
work a bit harder on the Meyer -- it could probably benefit from a
1/4-strength drop.

A Meyer SHOULD mate with an old Conn reasonably well, one would think. The
old horns were designed to use relatively large-chamber mouthpieces. I use
Otto Links (metal and rubber) on my Conn 10M, although I have reason to
believe the New York chamber might be TOO big for it. I have found I can
improve tone and response by pulling the neck out of the socket 1/4 inch
and pushing the mouthpiece onto the cork farther to compensate, which
REDUCES the effective chamber size. (I noticed I had to put the mouthpiece
on quite a bit farther on the neck of my Martin Committee for tuning and
wondered if that affected anything else. It did.)

The complex interactions of mouthpiece, neck/barrel, and body are beyond my
expertise level, but I do know they make a difference. I can't play any
Vandoren clarinet mouthpiece I have tried (B45, B44, B46, 5RV, 5RV Lyre) in
tune in the altissimo, EXCEPT on my old Selmer BT. Any other mouthpiece is
grossly sharp on it, but those mouthpieces play just fine on my Series 10,
Bundy, Vito, Rene Dumont, etc.

Bill Hausmann

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO LOUD!

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