Runyon/Brilhart Levelair tenor

[connman]

Anyone who plays one of these on tenor that can give some impressions or comparison to other Runyon mpcs?

[MojoBari]

I dont play the "new" LAs, but the LA is a Smoothbore on the outside and a Quantum on the inside. I play Quantums. You get 2 removable baffles with it which are Spoilers without the metal reeds. They are made so one fits closer to the tip than the other to give 2 more brightness options. WW&BW only lists sizes up to 9. On Quantums I think 9-12 are the good sizes. Runyon may make larger LAs too.

[connman]

Thanks, Mojo.

[tomsch]

According to the WW&BW charts a 9 on the LA is .110. That means the sizes do not map 1-for-1 to the Runyon sizes.

[MojoBari]

The WW&BW charts are hardly ever updated or corrected. But it looks like the recent catalog has the same numbers for LAs and Runyons. Both list #9=.110", which I think is way off for a Runyon tenor. I would expect it to be off for the Runyon made LA 9 too.

[Honeyboy]

I bought one of these about mid 90's. I did some side by side comparisons with a plastic Quantum and two Smoothbores. The tone is hardly distinguishable from the Quantum and is fuller sounding than the Smoothbore. Without the plastic baffles, the tone is fairly dark and rich and with the shorter of the two baffles, the projection is quite good. They also work well with baritone size Bari reeds. Altissimo is always there when you need it- I used it for R&B and Blues gigs for many years without a hitch. I like the skinny ligature it comes with except it does loosen up and the reeds tend to shift. I prefer to use an Eddie Daniels Rovner ligature. Lately I am preferring my old Dukoff D7 for its brighter tone.

[Les22]

Honeyboy, How about the sound with the other baffle, the higher one, in the LA. I assume you would get essentially the same sound as a Q with spoiler.
For the price, these LA's sound like a real deal.

[Honeyboy]

The longer plastic one isn't as loud and is a bit less bright sounding. The spoiler didn't make a difference in volume to my ear when I put it in the Brilhart. Sound and volume just about the same, and yes, they are a great dea compared to a metal Quantum. I use a size 8, incidently. Whatever you would use in a Link or Dukoff will work on the Brilhart.

[connman]

I got a #9 Levelair from WW/BW. It was very much like a metal Q without the Duckbill. I liked it with the small interchangable baffle or, for darker sound, w/o a baffle. It was very well finished for a reasonable price. I have a Q that sounds great, but switching back and forth from tenor to alto with the duckbill was quite difficult. This solves the problem. By the way, it came in a Selmer box. Does Selmer own the Brilhart name although they are manufactured by Runyon?

[MojoBari]

I think that is true. I know Brilhart sold his name.

[Honeyboy]

Selmer has Runyon make them for Selmer. Selmer has owned Brilhart at least since 1976. I have an old Selmer catalogue where they offer the Brilhart mouthpieces. Funny they don't make them themselves. I figure since they changed the design from the duckbill, they just picked a nice working model from Runyon and stuck the Brilhart name on it. Kind of like Babbitt changed the design of Otto Links. It's like undershirts. . They make them in the same factoriy and put a Hanes lable on one and a Fruit of the Loom on the next batch. Sometimes these shirts are identicle in all respects, even down to the design they put on it.