claude lakey rubber for tenor, any comment?

[benjamin1979]

I waiting for this mpc right now, but i'm curious to know how it sounds and the good things about it.

anyone play before?

[JJK]

I have a 9*3. For the 50 bucks or so it costed, it's pretty good. Very loud and compact sound with a lot of edge. A little too thin up top tonewise for my taste though. I'm using a Ponzol M2 metal right now that has a similar baffle to the Lakey but a much larger bore. It's easier to control than the Lakey and it sounds a bit fuller without sacrificing any power. The Ponzol costed around $250 however... So if you can control the Lakey and get a good sound out of it up top, it may be a good option..... :)

[super20dan]

i agree with the above post.i have a 8*3 as a back up r&b mpc .a very good mpc for the money

[Chris]

cheap plastic mpc. sharp and loud tone.

[Sigmund451]

Really hated mine. Sold it after a week on ebay. Made my horn sound like a tin whistle. Others seem to like them...perhaps it was me. Also I didnt like the duck bill tip at all

[colibri]

The Lakey can be played as dark as a Link or bright like a star. It's a mouthpiece with flexibility if you find a good one. Mine was picked from his shop when he was alive.

[benjamin1979]

strange? most of my friend had tried my 6*3 and they like it alot and begging me to sell to them. it has a medium bright and big round sound. just like a berg + link. outplay alot of mpc.

[MojoBari]

Strange? A mouthpiece some players like and some dont?

[Andres]

Shocking... :roll:

[benjamin1979]

yapp. shocking. btw, i'm using a mrk 3 lig.

[Dr G]

Claude was really good to me many years ago. I asked for some recommendations of mouthpieces to try and he sent me a box of sop and tenor 'pieces, told me to try them, and send back teh ones I didn't want to keep. I found the 6*3 to work best on my Balanced Action tenor and a 7* as a good match for my Mk VI sop. I was doing a fusion gig at the time with (loud) electric guitar, Hammond B-3, bass and drums. The 6*3 was a good compromise of body and cut. None of the other Lakey m'pieces held my interest.

[benjamin1979]

thats mean this mpc is something like dukoff. u really need to try ur luck to find a good one. is it? Dr G.

[Scottysax73]

a friend of mine uses it on alto and sounds amazing. does the tenor piece sound more like a metal mouthpiece? what mouthpiece do u think its most similiar to in sound?

[Bill Mecca]

I tried a 6*3 one time, in a word, "shrill." It may have been worked on, it looked the the white scroll on the shank had been sanded, so t's probably wasn't a good representation of the pieces.

[Zman]

I too tried a 6*3 (brand new one) on my 10M...bad news, man. Screechy and harsh in all registers.

[Dr G]

thats mean this mpc is something like dukoff. u really need to try ur luck to find a good one. is it? Dr G.

If you are asking whether it sounds like a Dukoff, no, definitely not a Dukoff. I don't care for those at all. If you are asking whether they vary within a single style - I'm sure they do. With hand-finished mouthpieces there will always be one that is better than another. On the other hand, if the one that you get plays well for you, keep it.

I have spent the last 15 years since then using ever darker mouthpieces. I'm not sure that I would like a 6*3 at all now. My idea of a bright mouthpiece is a Lawton 8*B and a Lamberson 8SB. And even then, I only use those on "special" occasions (i.e., very seldom).

[colibri]

I don't think the current production Lakeys are hand finished.

[cfile]

I played a 5*3 HR for at least a year and thought it had a pretty good sound for a loud electric band. In fact, my daughter's dog ate one and I bought a second. Did have to do a little work on the tip facing to make it play a little better. However, I switched to an old metal Link (late Florida vintage) for jazz band and the tone was so much better that I never play the Lakey anymore, not even in the R&R band. The Lakey has a killer top end and altissimo is good for the few notes I can play up there. But the Link when pushed just has a thicker sound that is much more R&B and can get nice soft tones in all registers (never thin). It's much more forgiving than the Lakey; the Lakey is louder, a little brighter (and thinner) and has more edge.

[geosaxman]

I picked up a tenor a little over a year ago, put a V16 (T75) mouthpiece on it and took a shot at the blues (I'm historically a jazz alto). Admittedly, my real gig restricts even limited time to practice, however, I was fairly satisfied with the sound, after putting a Rovner lig on the horn to tone it down. When Mars Music took a nose dive (we should all remember that), I picked up a Lakey 7*3, screeched terribly with the Vandoren Java 2 1/2's I was using and promptly put the mouthpiece in a drawer. More recently, I started playing around with reeds, primarily because that G3 was avoiding me, not G#3, just the G, but they were all really hard to control. So, taking advice from my friends, I of course both increased and decreased my reed strength, with really no progress, except for a tired lip.

That's when I pulled the Lakey back out of the box, started at a 2 (Hemke) and it popped right out. I have since been playing Jazz on the tenor/lakey combo and have found the mouthpiece to be much darker and more focused, with great altissimo response. I have not tried it in the blues venue yet, I fear it won’t be beastly enough, but, it was good enough to bring jazz to my tenor. I won't be getting rid of it for a long time.

[benjamin1979]

yeah, good try. dont give up a piece too soon. just try diferrent type of reed and size. well, now i'm using a jumbo java T75. sound close to lakey but better altissimo and lows. good luck

[noelpaz]

I have a 7*3 that works well for me. You need to use softer reeds - actually I use fibracell on this one and I think it is the best match. Problem is if you use a hard reed on a lakey then you get the shrill or it tires you out. A soft read will have thin top tones especially after getting wet. The fibracell is the ticket to this plastic monters, because it will never get soggy. Also aged ricos and old vandorens work - but these are hard to find. I was almost going to sell mine and after discovering fibracell for this piece it changed my conception of lakeys and it is more controllable now. BTW fibracell sucked on my Otto Link and BAri Golds and also on the Meyer. Even though it high baffle it actually has less edge than you would think and almost has a trumpet sound to it, not hollowed out. Almost consistenty ful except G2 to B3 and then it is even again. I m still working on it.

I made a promise to myself not to play other pieces except the links - but somehow sticking this on my older horn and the link on the other actually does not make me change my embochure and still helping me improve.

These pieces are loud when pushed and can still be played soft.

[noelpaz]

BTW altissimo is easy to get on this guys - and remember not just lip pressure to get there - jmore diaphragm support really. Multiphonics are coming easier as well. I never though high baffle pieces could be this versatile. Unfortunately this guys are not made of tough material but I think the material is one of the secrets to its tone and the reason for its short life.

[MojoBari]

Most Lakeys are good for high altissimo. They work because the facing curve is flipped up significantly near the tip and there is a high baffle in that area. The trade off is they are airy sounding in the normal range at normal volumes.

[Subtone Sam]

I had a couple for trial for alto and they are nice,bright pieces but they are plastic and have very plastic-type of sound.If these were hard rubber,they would be great pieces.