Brancher metal for baritone are they any good?

[john_idle]

I play an e25 on alto and I love it. But how are Branchers for baritone? Has anybody had any negative/positive experinace with them? What I'd really want is a Lawton but a can't affoard it, should I save upp? My baritone is an René-Gounot=dark sounding. I'm playing a Selmer C* super 80 now and I'm getting bored with it :(

[amg]

I can't tell you about the metal Branchers, I've never tried one (though I suspect they'd be too bright for me). But I have hard rubber Branchers for alto and baritone (L23 and L31) and I think they're pretty good. They seem to be accurately finished and they give a nice ring to the sound in the upper register. I think even the HR Branchers would be quite a step away from a Selmer C* stylewise, and might be more versatile than the metal pieces -- but who knows. And they're cheaper, I'd guess.

I did a direct comparison between the baritone ebonite Brancher and an ebonite Lawton and went for the Brancher. It sounds a bit more characterful to me. Also I felt that (paradoxically) it allowed more of the natural tone of the horn to come through (I have a Mk VI). I know Geoff Lawton's mouthpieces pretty well as I used one (in fact, two) on alto for quite some time. But in the end, I wanted to move back to ebonite, and I didn't really click with his ebonite pieces.