Klarinet Archive - Posting 000147.txt from 2009/04

From: "Kevin Fay" <kevin.fay.home@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Saxophone Mouthpiece Madness
Date: Sun, 26 Apr 2009 22:26:48 -0400

If you don't play saxophone - or want to - please hit the delete key. This
is going to be a long one.

First of all, apologies to Tom Kay. He emailed me privately to ask some
follow-up questions about my earlier post on alto mouthpieces sold by
Kessler Music in Las Vegas (see www.kesslermusic.com), specifically about
the differences between the three "grades" of mouthpiece. Since I happened
to have one of each on order, I put off responding until I could actually
try them. In the meantime, I spent a dozen hours over my vacation getting a
new HP computer set up, and promptly lost his email address. Because I'm
lazy, I'll just send this to the list, esp. since others might be
interested.

First off, if you want to order any of these, you really should call the
store and speak to Chuck Kessler (the owner). He will talk your ear off.
Lots of info.

*Alto*

Kessler sells the "student" alto mouthpieces with either a C* clone or NY
Meyer 5 clone facing. Since I've never liked the Selmer C* on alto, I
didn't have any reason to try an inexpensive copy. I took my Buffet alto
(Keilwerth SX90 stencil), a stack of Vandoren Java and LaVoz medium reeds
and gave them a test drive. Here's the skinny:

$29.95 - the cheap student piece's plastic blank is supposed to be modeled
after the Brilhart. I like Brilharts - I keep a 5* in the arsenal. This
didn't play like a Brilhart, though. It did play very much like a modern
Meyer 6 in my A/B test, for a whole lot less money. It's pretty perfect to
throw at the middle school kid starting jazz band; sounds OK and no great
loss when s/he loses it. It's a very good alternative to a Brilhart for
about the same price.

$49.95 - this is the same facing on an "intermediate" blank made of 50/50
rubber and plastic. I'm not sure that it played twenty bucks better than
the "student" piece. I thought it was a little bit brighter.

$134.95 - This is the "pro" model, with a hard rubber blank made to order by
Babbitt and hand-finished by a guy named Steve at for the Kessler store.
It's not a cheap alternative to the current Meyer, which has a street price
of about $100; it costs a third more. The lore is that somewhere along the
way, perhaps when the Meyer brothers "sold out" to the Babbitt people, the
design changed from the short-shank loved by beboppers everywhere to the
current too-bright design. I thought it curious that Babbitt would make a
short-shank blank for some dude in Vegas to peddle a recreation of the "Holy
Grail," so was pretty interested in trying it.

Survey says - well, I own a new alto mouthpiece. OMFG, this thing kills - I
sound like Lou Donaldson! (Now if only I could *play* like Lou Donaldson.)

I have never owned or played a short-shank Meyer from the '50s - the ones
that sell on eBay for $1,500 on up. I don't know how this thing stacks up,
but it's easily the best alto piece I've ever played. I am mystified why
Babbitt doesn't sell these by the truckload under their own name. Until
then, call Chuck Kessler and get one while you can.

*Tenor*

I really don't need a new tenor piece - I have lots, from a 1939 Meyer with
the concave table and a couple of Great Neck Brilharts to a Santy Runyon 8
that will give electric guitara a run for their money with te spoiler in it.
Since I'm in the neighborhood, though, I fired up my Buffet (Keilwerth SX 90
stencil) and . . .

All of the tenor pieces are supposed to be based on a Florida Otto Link
(slant sig?) metal #7. I've always thought that the metal Links played more
like hard rubber mouthpieces than most of the other metal ones out there.
In any event, the chamber and baffle are much the same. Results of the
taste test:

$34.95 - a fantastic choice for the student. This thing just plays - very
easy to get a versatile sound. Sale of the Century.

$54.95 - this had a little less edge than the "student" model. It might be
the material, perhaps the extra hand finishing - or just variation in
manufacture. Worth the extra twenty bucks if you can tell the difference,
but most kids probably won't be able to. Sigh - had to buy it. It's not
the "holy grail" by any means, but has a very nice sound that's *very* easy
to control. With a plastic reed, perfect for the pit; you can pick it up
cold and be sure of the sound that it will emit.

$149.95 - this is a third more expensive than the street price of a regular
rubber Otto Link. It might be worth it (a matter of taste). I found it to
play almost exactly the same as my mid-60s rubber Link 6*, which I guess
shouldn't be too surprising, since the blanks look identical and the facing
is much the same. Like my rubber Link, this piece has too much edge for me
- I must bite too much from all the eepher that I play.

Tried six, bought two.

kjf

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