My 3 tenor saxophone mouthpiece categories. This greatly simplifies your choices for you. All of my new Generation ll hr models have USA stamped on the side and gold paint.
Category 1 mouthpiece—Warm category mouthpiece
“THE CLASSIC” hard rubber—-Warm, pure, focussed, even sound
Focussed, warm, rich, full sound with a warmer power and a beautiful deep core top to bottom. Very flexible. Very much a classic Blue Note type of vibe. Getz, Mobley, early Sonny, etc. The sound is more focussed than the Robusto model. The sound is even and pure top to bottom and projects well out to the audience. Always retains a rich, warm, and focussed sound no matter what volume level, full tone or subtone. Very much a classic 1950s straightahead jazz type of sound. Fantastic altissimo for a lower baffle mouthpiece and the intonation is amazingly locked in.
DESIGN: This piece has a short baffle, extremely scooped out sidewalls, a higher floor than the Robusto, and a wider med-large chamber.
Category 2 mouthpieces—All-around, middle category mpc that offers warmth, fatness, and punch.
Option 1: “ROBUSTO” hard rubber—- Spread, fat, warm, with punch and sizzle when pushed. (Think Gene Ammons here.)
I designed the Robusto to be my personal tenor mouthpiece—-and it is. For me, this offers the perfect blend of lows, mids, + highs, and has a rich color palette and wide dynamic range. The sound has a really great classic warmth with plenty of punch available when you want it. More power, punch, and brightness available than the category one Classic mouthpiece. This has a timeless “hard bop ny tenor sound” and a modern Jazz sound is available from it at the same time, with more power and punch available than the traditional vintage mouthpieces…and with a nice classic sizzle on top when you want it. Lots of room to let loose with this piece. It offers great body and depth. it’s clean and powerful top to bottom with a huge, full body of sound. Like all my mouthpieces, the sound “opens up” beautifully as you push it.
DESIGN: This has a medium height, medium length baffle, flat sidewalls, a nice med-large chamber, and the floor drops after the baffle. The altissimo sing with a fullness on this piece. They do not get thin or edgy for me. This piece is a phenomenal all-around straight ahead jazz hard rubber mpc. My hard rubber Robusto absolutely smokes the vintage slants, resos, and early babbitt links, for me.
Much more depth, body, and core!
Option 2: “SHOWTIME” hard rubber—Focussed, open sounding piece with warmth, extra punch, brights, and sizzle. Great all-around player to be used for anything. For all you guys that love the Robusto model, but want even more freedom in the blow with more punch and brights available ….THIS IS IT!
DESIGN: This piece has a medium height baffle with straight sidewalls to the end of the baffle, and then the sidewalls are scooped out all the way to the med-large chamber. It has a higher floor than the Robusto and Classic models.
Category 3 mouthpiece—Powerful category mouthpiece
Option 1: “BLACK WIDOW” hard rubber: Powerhouse player, great cross-over piece for the jazz player looking to be able to comfortably get over to the more rocking’ stuff, and the more pop/blues/R&B player looking for more fatness in their sound with a huge body and power to it.
The Black Widow is a powerful “cross-over” moderate height baffle mouthpiece with huge depth and a vibrant core sound, that can be used for all settings from quiet to nasty funk! More powerful and has more brights than my other models. A piece designed for the jazz guys to use easily, and a piece the pop/smooth jazz and funk players will love. It has become clear that many players want a “cross-over” category piece that is different from the other models. Something easily used for jazz stuff and for guys playing commercial pop, blues, smooth jazz, rock, and funk type of stuff too.
The Black Widow will be loved by jazz players looking for a powerful piece that can be used for straight ahead stuff+++, and also the more commercial players looking for another design option for a powerful piece with a longer and more moderate baffle height design that isn’t overly bright at all.. The baffle goes to the chamber and makes this piece incredibly versatile. This 3rd Category Black Widow mouthpiece has been a super hit so far.
A comfortable medium height long baffle piece for the jazz player to use and get more punch and brights with, without it being a high baffle piece.
A beautiful “cross-over” piece for the jazz guys to get into more punchy and powerful stuff, but with a more classic feel in the mouth, and an easy accommodating resistance feel. (Easy blowing with just a slight resistance. Not a ridiculously free Guardala-like blow).
DESIGN: Flat sidewalls, a medium height very long baffle, with a medium-large chamber that blows like a medium chamber.
Option 2: “SUPER WIDOW” hard rubber: A much brighter, punchier, more focussed, screamer. More powerful than the BW. (Coming out early, 2020)
The 10MFAN “Super Widow”:
The SW offers contemporary players a very comfortable lower beak, and super colorful choice with more focus, more punch, and more brights than The Black Widow.
The lower beak, flatter and higher baffle will offer metal players who want an option in hard rubber, (who typically play a thinner profile piece), a more traditional feel while being much more comfortable than those “too narrow for me in my mouth pieces”, in my opinion.
It will offer the hard rubber players a familiar hard rubber feel with way more enhanced resonance and a very free blowing, cutting sound experience.
*** With all of my mouthpieces, you can make the sound darker, warmer, brighter, or punchier with simple reed brand choices. ***
