New mouth piece good but not the solution

[john springer]

Great answers from everyone. Thank you! You have given me a lot to think about.

[brother cavefish]

there is a nice Yanagisawa HR 6 for tenor
$100 on mouthpiece marketplace on facebook, i believe they have round chambers, not a bad MP i here ,inexpensive

[Mike Potter]

many years ago I bought a used Otto link tone master, I just played rock and blues, it was “ok” and like you I couldn’t figure out why I just couldn’t get the buzzy vibe I wanted so badly to get (ala Sil Austin, Red Prysok). I was taking lessons from a guy who let me try is berg 120/1 sms, Cha Ching! So, was it “berg magic”, na, just a high baffle mouth piece with a rico plastic cover… but it was a great rock piece, wish I still had it!!! Today I have a couple of pieces that seem to fit the bill pretty well, a 10Mfan Boss metal, 9* (which I use most of the time, but the plating is coming off and I need to have it replated) and a JJ Superjet with one of their power ring ligs, it’s a cannon can be pretty shrill but with a select jazz 3M unfiled reed and the power ligature it has a pretty decent sound. Both are high baffle pieces, the Boss is more of a roll over with the JJ has a cliff that falls off into the chamber. They both do the rock/blues thing really well, the short facing on the JJ aids in hitting altissimo notes which is a huge benefit to me, the old berg I had was similar in that way, I guess that’s why a lot of rock players used them back in the day. BUT… there are some great blues/rock players killing it with an Otto Link so if you like how that mouthpiece plays start working on trying some different reed combinations, an 8* with a 2.5 plastic cover will sound pretty buzzy, a synthetic reed will get similar results (cheaper to experiment with a plastic cover though). You can also get some puddy, I’ve used plumbers buddy, and build up a little baffle in the Otto Link (a common practice back in the 40’s and 50’s to get more drive out of a mouthpiece). Do what you can with the Otto, if it doesn’t pan out then try some high baffle pieces. Best of luck!

[Michael]

Lots of great points being made here by everyone, pretty cool 🙂 The one thing we need to realize is that we each have our own individual sound. Each sound is unique–and it’s all good. Changing a mouthpiece isn’t always the solution. A change of reed can make a huge difference too. It’s funny how sometimes mouthpieces will respond better to a different brand of reed. I also think it’s very important to have the right concept of sound in our heads. Trying to get a big rock and roll sound on the Sax will be hard to do if we’re listening to Classical music all the time. We need to be able to hear the sound in our heads first before we can play it. Usually, if we can hear it, then we can play it.

[Author]

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