Discussing mouthpieces

[tonal ambition]

Hi,

I'm pretty new to the sax and I don't understand some of the language that gets used. What do the terms "free-blowing" and "fat" mean?

[-j.]

"free-blowing" simply means that the mouthpiece has little resistance, i.e. it doesn't take much effort to play. The amount of resistance will vary according to model and make; depending on the quality control of the manufacturer, it can vary between two identical models. Berg Larsens, for instance, have a reputation for varying greatly. (I'm not knocking Bergs, btw -- I play a HR current production Berg on tenor myself.)

"Fat" -- well, that's more difficult to define because it's more subjective. One synonym that comes to mind -- my mind anyway... -- is "beefy." (Full? Round?) Because of the subjectivity involved, it is a little difficult and potentially controversial to adduce individual players on whose sound everyone can agree in terms of descriptive adjectives, but I guess a safe bet would be to describe Gene Ammons's tenor as emanating a mighty "fat" sound. No...?

-j.

[Bill Mecca]

using words to describe sound can be a tricky thing, what sounds fat to one may sound , oh I don't know, 'stuffy" to another. :wink:

to me, another way to say Fat, is Thick, full of overtones.

sometimes it might be helpful to use a well known recording artist as an example. As in, "It was a penetrating tone like Jr.Walker" penetrating, there's a good one... one that can be both thick and thin, is it lazer like? see what one can get oneself into? :lol:

[Riff]

As a new saxophonist you might benefit by some basic information on mouthpieces.
In my experience, a free-blowing mouthpiece is one whose side rails are very nearly symetrical in their facing curve. This relates to quality control in the manufacturing process.
Increasing the baffle height can also make a mouthpiece easier to blow but this may be at the expense of low register response.

Some general guidelines in mouthpiece design are:
1 the larger the tip opening, the softer the reed should be. (and visa-versa)
2 the larger the chamber the darker the sound.
3 the smaller the chamber the brighter the sound.

Visit www.jonvanwie.com
Jon has some excellent educational info on mouthpiece design.

[conntenor]

My rubber selmer c* is free-blowing as in it has a small chamber. Alto
My king #3 is fat as in it has a carnaverously large chamber. Tenor