Saxophone Mouthpiece Guide

Welcome to the expansive world of Woodwind & Brass mouthpieces! Here at Mouthpieces.co.uk we offer a huge variety of mouthpieces, which of course can only mean one thing… A huge amount of variables!

Below, we have outlined the crucial elements of mouthpiece anatomy for you to use as a resource when deciding on which mouthpiece you are going to buy. Crafting a world class mouthpiece good enough for public consumption is a very technical subject which brings along jargon into the retail industry that can often leave us musicians dazed and confused.

DISCLAIMER...!
This guide isn’t going to simplify a vast subject; that would be a wild claim. Instead, we will break it down into bite size chunks allowing someone who has never purchased or upgraded their mouthpiece before to make a solid decision when ordering on our website WITHOUT even play-testing the mouthpiece. If you are reading this and pondering, “well I am a very experienced player, I can manage all the technical details that come along with mouthpieces, I invented quadruple tonguing” then fear not, this guide will cater to all abilities and technical appetites.

Before we even start thinking about “how many thousands of an inch is my tip opening going to be? Or which fancy material do I want my mouthpiece to be made from? Or which reed am I going to pair with my new mouthpiece?”... “Breathe”

We need to decipher what you are hoping to get out of an upgraded mouthpiece. Quite often, players that have been studying for five to six years feel there must be more to life than their current mouthpiece, which is often a beginner ‘blank’ mouthpiece which is easy to play, but doesn’t offer the flexibility of a professional mouthpiece.

Occasionally players think a new mouthpiece will be the answer to their woes. It is best to think of a mouthpiece like a dietary supplement (bear with us on this one). You may have seen on the labels of vitamins, protein bars or any other product you might find in a health store reading “This is not a meal replacement, but a supplement to a healthy diet.” Think of your diet as the practice, and the mouthpiece as the supplement. No mouthpiece upgrade is a substitute for a healthy balanced practice routine.

Below are the subject areas that will be key to helping you ascertain which specification you want to order your mouthpiece to compliment your playing style. This will be done in order of the greatest effect on tone and timbre. The following points discussed apply to Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Baritone.

 

Tip Opening

Tip opening is the distance (gap) between the tip of the reed to the tip of the mouthpiece. Traditionally this is indicated by a number which is found embossed on the body of the mouthpiece. Saxophone Mouthpiece tip openings generally range from an opening size of 4 up to 10. The smaller the number the closer the tip opening, the larger the number the wider.

What is the point of this?

Increasing the air flow via tip opening on a mouthpiece will increase projection potential (volume potential) and resistance. Resistance is exactly what you might think, it’s harder to blow! Increasing the tip opening means it requires more air to generate the movement of the reed. We advise moving up only two increments when buying a saxophone mouthpiece as a larger jump may prove extremely difficult to play without the adjustment of reed strength.

Without opening up a can of worms, that being the subject of Reeds, there is a way to balance the resistance with reed strength. When you first started you may remember using a softer reed such as a 1.5. After a period of time when your embouchure has developed and strengthened, you more than likely increased the reed strength and maybe settled with a 2.5 or 3 (we’re guessing). The same logic applies when increasing the tip opening. As it is a new mouthpiece to you, you may have to drop the reed strength until your embouchure adjusts. But fear not, having a harder reed isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It is about balance of volume and tone without the honking and struggling to reach a low Bb whilst nursing a hernia.

The key takeaway from tip openings is it allows you to have a much wider dynamic range. Making playing more expressive and more powerful in live scenarios when you’re trying to cut through a Big Band during a solo for example.

 

Baffles

Baffles are true to their name, a device which is implemented to restrain (or change) the flow of sound in a particular direction. Inside a mouthpiece, a baffle is situated behind the tip rail and can vary in shape, size and length. After the airstream enters the mouthpiece the first surface area that it has to navigate is the baffle, this gives the baffle an opportunity to determine the fundamental tone of the mouthpiece whether bright or dark.

Before we discuss the types of baffles, it is important to note that no two players are identical. The simple fact is that some players use more air, others have a tighter embouchure, different shaped oral cavity and throat. That’s even before you start talking about different saxophones and reed combinations . You might find the sound you desire is a bright sound akin to David Sanborn. However you may not use as much air as he once did, meaning you may struggle to get his rambunctious edge even with a Dukoff D7 mouthpiece. The same applies if you are looking for a soft velvety tone. If you are an aggressive player who uses ample air, a large chamber mouthpiece with a flat baffle might not cut it if you want to sound silky and smooth like Stan Getz, it would be your technique you’d have to adjust.

The job of a mouthpiece is to allow the player to achieve a sound which is natural for them, has good intonation and translates well in different scenarios. If it so happens you find a mouthpiece that works for you and you sound like Bud Freeman, then that's a bonus!

Flat Baffle - A flat baffle mouthpiece offers a consistent sound throughout the range of the horn. These were the design of choice from as early as the 50s, and we’re talking 1850s! Well suited to players who have a larger capacity for airflow. More air equals an influx of resonance and overtones which can be dubbed as “bright or edgy”, so having a flat baffle this may counteract brighter tendencies. Flat baffles extend from the tip rail to the chamber with no undulation hence the term flat.

Rollover Baffle - With the naked eye, the Rollover baffle looks similar to the flat baffle in principle. With closer inspection you can clearly identify a Rollover by examining the convexed baffle just below the tip rail. This shaped surface increases the air pressure initially which creates a tone with more edge and bite whilst retaining its well supported core. Some of the most popular mouthpieces have a Rollover baffle as they are extremely malleable when it comes to shaping your sound.

Step Baffle - Now we are truly testing the limitations of our vocabulary. Here are some words that you might associate with the tone created by a Step Baffle. Edgy, Funky, Aggressive, Massive, Potent, LASER BEAM! You get the point. Step baffles are wildly bright and if in the right/wrong hands can be deafening (depending on what you like).
A step baffle is best described as an exaggerated version of a rollover baffle, except the subtle convex shape of the rollover is now quite literally the size of door step you’d find when entering your home. These baffles often have a sudden vertical drop off into the chamber which accelerates the air so much that it shoots out the saxophone at an impressive speed. As we know the faster the air moves the more overtones it has, so these mouthpieces lend themselves perfectly to genres such as Pop, Funk, Soul or even playing along with a DJ spinning house tracks in a club at 01:34 on a Tuesday morning. They often don’t have a lot of body to the sound, unless paired with a thicker reed. However it is possible to make them sound sweet with a good amount of control.

 

Chamber

The chamber is the area of the central cavity within the heart of the mouthpiece. It sits directly below the table on which you place your reed. As we know, mouthpieces come in all different sizes, which of course means the chamber sizes will all differ. There are three main types of chambers, all with their own unique characteristics which shape the sound before entering the saxophone itself. Before we highlight the differences between each chamber size, it is worth remembering the bore of the mouthpiece is the cavity which fits on the cork of the crook. The bore sizes of mouthpieces are close in size to meet the requirements of a standard crook and cork. Large chamber mouthpieces have a wider circumference than the bore, Medium, roughly the same, and Small is narrower.

Large Chamber mouthpieces offer a wider, more full sound. Some people may refer to this as a spread sound. Large chamber mouthpieces are great at filling the room and are often favoured by jazz musicians as traditionally they tend not to be a sound you’d associate with brilliance or brightness, but fullness and stability. Otto Link Ebonite would be the perfect candidate.

Medium Chamber mouthpieces are a versatile option. They allow the player to retain the core sound whilst also having the ability to generate more airspeed to increase treble overtones and display a more focused tone. D'Addario Select Jazz would be a fine example of this.

Small Chamber mouthpieces have a chamber circumference smaller than the bore which squashes the air through the mouthpiece at a faster rate, offering a focused, brighter sound. Mouthpieces with a small chamber can often feel more free blowing as less air is needed to generate the same volume. Meyer 6S is a fantastic example of a small chamber mouthpiece.

 

Materials

Saxophone mouthpieces come in all different shapes and sizes, they are even available in materials which you might not have considered.

Traditionally the most popular choice of material that mouthpieces are made from is vulcanised rubber known as ebonite. This process hardens the rubber to allow it to be shaped efficiently during manufacture and helps cope with the strains of being used vigorously throughout ownership.

Beginner mouthpieces are more than likely to be made of plastic, these are brilliant to get you started but will not produce the best tone compared to its ebonite counterparts.

How about metal mouthpieces? Most commonly metal mouthpieces were made of brass, but as time went on the industry got more experimental with materials such as precious metals - including gold plating, 24k solid gold, silver - or even more unusual materials such as glass or carbon fibre. These materials do affect the sound but more so the price. A solid gold mouthpiece doesn’t necessarily mean it will perform better for you than an entry level ebonite mouthpiece.

Metal mouthpieces are often heavier of course, and generally slightly larger in size. It is not uncommon for someone who is new to metal mouthpieces finding themselves having to make adjustments to their embouchure. Otto Link metal mouthpieces are a prime example of this, they are truly wider in the mouth and can take some getting used to.

Metal mouthpieces aren’t often seen being used by classical saxophonists. They are favoured by players that will be playing jazz, pop, blues and other contemporary styles of playing. This is because the vast majority of metal designs facilitate more air or have a more elaborate baffle design.

Choosing a material can be an exciting process, but don’t let this be the leading factor. Having said that, a gold mouthpiece on a black and gold sax does look super 80s and almighty cool... if you ask the right people.

 

Facing (Curves/Length)

Now we are really getting stuck in. The vast majority of players who will be buying a mouthpiece will not consider the facing curve and length of a mouthpiece as more often than not it isn’t usually the deciding factor for most people compared to say… the price. That being said we thought it necessary to include it in this guide so you can have access to all mouthpiece information to help you make a decision. We will do our best to explain this, but as we are trying to keep this guide “bite-sized” and useful to all consumers we are condensing some areas and technical measurements to aid understanding of concepts without writing a book on each area, as it is possible and has been done before… good REED! (that pun was pathetic).

What is a facing? Let's put our reed on our mouthpiece. We lay our reed on the flat surface area of the mouthpiece before it is locked in position by the ligature. This area is called the table. If you look at your mouthpiece with reed and ligature assembled you will notice that there is a place in between the tip of the mouthpiece and the table where the reed begins to separate from the mouthpiece. That is called the break point, and is the start of the facing curve! The closer the break point is to the table, the longer the facing, the closer it is to the tip the shorter. Facing curves are either Long, Medium or Short. Different facing curves have their own advantages.

Long Facing Curve - These pieces are favoured by players that want a luscious, reedy sound reminiscent of yesteryear. They often feel and play like they have a slightly wider tip opening. The long facing curve further engages the lower portion of the reed increasing body and warmth in the lower extremities of the instrument.

Medium Facing Curve - Are by far the most common due to their natural playability and evenness throughout the instruments range. This is favoured by many players as they can achieve a big, bold sound without having to spend a good portion of time finding a reed which is compatible.

Short Facing Curve - Short facings are excellent for players who want instant feedback and razor sharp articulation. Given only the very top (thinner part) of the reed is vibrating freely it will accentuate responsiveness, but will be more tricky to control lower down.
Hopefully now you are confused and don’t know why you decided to buy a new mouthpiece.. GOTCHA! We told you this was going to be fun, right?

 

Conclusion

Many people who have more experience than us when it comes to crafting these works of art that we call mouthpieces all have differing opinions on what they feel is essential to making a great mouthpiece and a great purchase. But the one thing they could all agree on is; to get the mouthpiece that is right for you.

Only you know what YOU want from your sound, only you have YOUR budget, only you have YOUR embouchure. As discussed, all of these things have to be taken into consideration when buying mouthpieces. Players spend years chopping and changing mouthpieces chasing a “sound” which sometimes never arrives. A new mouthpiece will take some getting used to, often months of getting used to it. If you use the above guide to help you make an informed decision you should be on to a winner. A mouthpiece is a vessel for sounding like yourself.