Mouthpiece comparison video for Alto

[Anonymous]

00:32 Basic plastic
01:31 Yamaha 4C
05:17 Selmer C**
06:49 Selmer Concept
08:00 Meyer HR 6M
10:08 Otto Link HR 6*
11:05 Jody Jazz HR* 6M
12:20 Vandoren V5 A35
13:30 D’addario Select Jazz D6M

[Anonymous]

interesting comparson, all seem to be very classical sounding mouthpieces. You do have to keep upping the mouthpiece, in a matter of months you can outgrow any of these mouthpieces, and the downside is, if that happens, it WILL hold you back from getting a better sound. I’ve heard lots of people (not refering to anyone on this site) – where they have the wrong setup and they sound awful even though they are playing on tune. (if you can’t imagine that, then try listening to the same music testing out various headphones, you soon get blown away by the quality of sound from some very good brands – well is exactly what i am referring to, if you have a crap set up)

[Anonymous]

Hi sxpoet, I’d love to try a 6M Otto, Jo-Jazz or Dadio. My Bank Card is beginning to sweat – lol

Moving from a 4C to S80 was a very pleasant experience and the step changes in tone for those first few MP’s are quite large.

[Anonymous]

Hi Jeff, moving from a 4c to a S80 is just like putting on a better quality headphones.

I can remember at the time you changed over, like everyone else on this website, you thought that a better tone and sound only came from the player practicing over time (only true to a certain extent). But you soon realised how the quality of your tone excelled when you tried out the S80 compared to using the 4c. (just like different headphones sound better).

What you don’t realise, and i’ve been saying this for quite sometime, which is hard for you to believe, until you try it out for yourself, is if you’ve been playing the S80C for over a year or so, You must go up a size in the S80 range – go up to an S80D or S80E. if you cant get a size up in the S80 range, then find the equivalent in another brand mouthpiece.

It’s harder to explain the difference it will make to your sound. What it does is it will open up your tonal range, which is very limited on a S80c.
If you imagine looking at a 12 inch ruler comparing it to using a S80C all you would see on the ruler is the inch marks. Now if you were to move up to a S80D, what you would see on the ruler is the 1/2 inch marks, the more you move up mouthpiece wise, the more you see in the ruler. What this translates to is you can now start making finer adjustments to your tone which is impossible to do on an S80c. Along with these mouthpiece increases, has the same effect on your increasing your limited articulation, altissimo and overtones.

The only other major difference in mouthpiece design, is if you want to go all classical or all rock & roll. But in both cases you still need to go up in size.

The other thing with going up in mouthpiece size, you will need to drop down in reed size for the first few months.

[Anonymous]

Hi sxpoet

Mmmmmm, isn’t that what ‘they’ call the ‘Gap’ theory?

E-bo-nite and 2-blow-freeee … will make me spend more libe-ral-ly!

So what do you think of this MP so far?

https://www.sax.co.uk/daddario-select-jazz-alto-mouthpiece-bundle.ir

[Anonymous]

honestly – the main review i would read is the manufacturers review. Individual reviews vary from person to person and is their oppionion.

All you need to do is go up a mouthpiece size, in comparison to your S80c.

When going up mouthpiece sizes, don’t make big jumps in mouthpiece size, otherwise you could end sounding like you play the bag pipes or worse still you’ll have a out of tune tone that you cant properly get control of due to lack of proper embouchure development.

Give your embouchure time to develop with the next size up. (we’re talking weeks)

[Anonymous]

Pitch is Pitch, easily checked with a tuner.

What we need is a Tonal Meter, tone can be described on the circumference of a circle, going from bright on one half to dark on the other half. I believe that Tone can go from in-focus to out-of-focus just like pitch can go from in-tune to out-of-tune. in-tune pitch and in-focus tone sounds great, in-tune-pitch and out-of-focus tone sounds crap, just like out-of-tune pitch and in-focus tone sounds bad.

out-of-tune pitch and in-focus tone doesn’t sound as bad as in-tune pitch and out-of-focus tone, as out-focus-tone makes in-tune pitch sound slghtly out-of-tune.

gigo

[Anonymous]

Hi sxpoet. Well I have the tuning problem nailed with the free App I downloaded. I just have to keep each note in the green band (which is non-cents lol).

I’ve contacted three music shops so far. They either don’t have the MP’s I’m interested in or they have 5,7,8,9… anything but 6! You chaps are so fortunate to have a wide range to test out in your well stocked shops. It looks like I’m just going to have to order the new MP online and learn to play it.

Tone can be measured by vibration. When the tone is good my whole Sax resonates and the sound rings like a bell – very saxy!

[Anonymous]

There’s lots of tuning Aps knocking around, i use ‘TE Tuner’, i like it as it also has the option to generate the pitch, to tune the sax to, instead of looking at the tuner.

If you can’t get a 6, try a 7 – it’ll just take slightly longer to break in.
If one of your relatives/friends fly over, get them to bring you a S80D or S80E, E would give you a longer spell. Moving to a different brand, just means comparing the dimensions to your S80C.

4 yrs later i moved to a metal guardala king (alto) mouthpiece, within a few months i was amazed at the articulation/tone etc.. that was impossible for me to do on the previous mouthpiece that i had outgrown. It was far lot easier to bend notes, change the tone from heavy to soft. One of things that worried me, was that i would loose the classical sound, which it didn’t, and i’ve got the option of jazz latin, blues rock sound as well.

Moving the ligature forward or backward on the mouthpiece in relation to the reed can swing you between classical and rock to a certain extent, one position holds the reed tip firmer and the other position holds the tip more loosely to vibrate.

so many options

gigo

[Anonymous]

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