New mouthpiece!

Hi people! I know, I know, I can hear you think - she got something new, again?! :)

It is true, but this time it’s for one of my other instruments - my Conn alto sax! And I believe that justifies the purchase ;)

When I first got my sax, a mere year ago, it came with a mouthpiece that was about just as old as the sax. Difference is that the years of age made the sax look awesome and sound better, but the same cannot be said about the mouthpiece, especially a hard rubber one. But since I was running low on funds since the purchase of the sax, a new mouthpiece wasn’t an option for me, unfortunately.

Since I’ve been playing my sax, I found that some notes were harder to play than others, especially when changing from one octave to another (going from C to D, for instance). At first, my teacher blamed it on my starting embouchure. But, as some of  you may know, I’m very stubborn, and I was convinced that there wasn’t something wrong with my embouchure, but rather with the sax, the reed, or the mouthpiece.

I ‘won’ the argument when my teacher handed me his sax (and his mouthpiece!) and let me play on that. There was a little yaw-dropping-action on his part when I sounded just like him - and when my teacher sounded like me when he played my sax with my mouthpiece, the argument was settled. That’s also when I decided I needed another mouthpiece!

Upon my search on the web for mouthpieces, I found out that mouthpieces can (and are) quite expensive. A €150 euros is a regular price for a metal mouthpiece, and I was sure I wanted metal. (cause that’s what my teacher has!) But I didn’t really feel like spending a lot on it, especially cause I’ve only just started playing the sax… And then I ran across Marktplaats again (you know, Dutch version of eBay, Craigslist) and found an Otto Link imitation mouthpiece, for 1/3rd of the price.

Now, I’m not usually an imitation-lovin’ kinda gal. But after eying it for about 6 months, I decided to go for it. And I haven’t regretted it since. The piece just looks awesome (that’s that new & shiny look for you!), the material is superb, and it plays amazing! I’ll let the pics speak for now  - I’ll upload a video soon where you can hear it in action (a flute & sax rendition of Parker’s Mood!)

-wink