Barkley Pass Wround Review!

[BariSaxzinger]

I have been playing this mouthpiece a lot today and Ive noticed that It is a great well rounded mouthpiece. Plays great from top to bottom, It isnt as bright as I expected it to be. I play a 2 1/5 ZZ on it and it blows great with ease. It is an abnormally light mouthpiece. It is a beautiful mouthpiece as well. Ive never seen a ed yellow swirly mouthpiece. It looks pretty cool posted on it. I want me one of these, but the barone still covers everything Ill need it for!

Harry

[Dr G]

Is this the tenor "Jazz" model?

I just received word that mine is on its way as well.

I don't see a Barone mouthpiece in your sig. Which are you playing?

[BariSaxzinger]

Its the Jazz. Im playing the vintgae.
I think I may be getting one. The more I play it the more I like it.

[Barkley]

I'm glad you liked! This is not the brighter I have. K9 is a little more brighter than the Jazz 7.

Thanks for testing!

Junior

[Dr G]

I've a K9 and Jazz 7 on the way that will be available (on a limited basis) for SotW trials. Let me emphasize "limited" as I, too, want to spend some time with them! ;)

[Giganova]

I just wanted to mention that the Bakley Jazz reviewed here is the one from the image below that I sent on a tour to a few friends here on SOTW.

http://www.mouthpiecemuseum.com/Misc/Barkley.jpg

[Dr G]

Is yours with or without a step baffle? I see both at the MouthpieceMuseum.com website.

[Giganova]

It's the one without.

[fballatore]

Well, I've just spent the better part of the weekend with the Barkley Jazz 7 piece generously passed around by Giganova and I have to say I'm impressed.

I usually prefer metal on tenor, but I was pleased at the sound of the Barkley. I did comparative recordings with the Barkley and my AMMA, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well the Barkley sounded. I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting much, but it wowed me. I tried it out with two different reeds, a Vandoren ZZ 3 and a Roberto's 3S. The Barkley held up well with both reeds. It spoke very clearly and crisply, although a touch brighter than I like. Notes from top to bottom were easy to play. Loud when pushed, but easy to play quietly as well.

I'm not about to give up my AMMA, but the Barkley is a very good piece that I'd put ahead of many other hard rubber pieces I've tried. As Harry said in his original post, it's an incredibly light mouthpiece. I'd be curious to know what material they're made from.

[Rackety Sax]

I have to echo many of fballatore's comments.

My first reaction when I felt how light this mouthpiece is was that it could not possibly play well. But it does. It's a different design than all of my other tenor mouthpieces, all variants of the basic round-chambered, low baffle design in either hard rubber or metal. The Barkley has straight sidewalls, a long low baffle, and a pretty much square throat. The profile is smaller even than a metal Link, and that's something I would need some time to adjust to as my embouchure got tired pretty quickly, but I think I could easily get used to it.

This is a bold and powerful mouthpiece, but I would not characterize it as objectionably bright and it is not buzzy at all. In fact the sound is quite smooth with a really strong core, and as Frank mentions, if you back off it's easy to get a soft, round sound out of it. It responded well and sounded even throughout the range of the horn.

Given the modest price, excellent playing characteristics, and distinctive looks and lightness, I think Junior could do really well with these if he could manage to get decent distribution into mass markets in the U.S. I imagine that's difficult to do though.

After playing this I'd love to see what Junior could come up with in a traditional Link-like design.

Thanks to Giganova for circulating this for trial, it was really a blast playing this unique mouthpiece.

[jazzsax07]

I have had the Barkley for a little over a week and in spite of having grandkids over for 4days I did manage to get about four hours of
playing on it.
I normally play a Guy Hawkins 6, The Barkley is a 7. I could easily tell the
difference in the wider tip opening, a little more effort is needed to play.

It is a mouthpiece that is easy to like. Easy to control both loud and soft and subtone and harmonics.

Overall I thought the size was a little to small for me to control as much as I would like. Maybe not really that much smaller than the Hawkins but the extra effort to control the wider tip opening make it slightly more difficult as far as endurance. My embouchure got tired quicker than on the Hawkins.
As expected the sound is slightly bigger on the Barkley.

My first impression was how light it is. The mouthpiece alone weighs 14 grams! The Hawkins 80 grams. (The Consoli ligature I received in the pass around was almost twice as heavy as the mouthpiece.)

[Bill Mecca]

The Barkley just arrived yesterday, haven't had much time with it, but so far I'm impressed.
the website though doesn't seem to be functioning.

More when I get a bit more time with it. soon. ;)

[Bill Mecca]

Had a bit more time with the Barkley tonight. It's a fine mpc, very responsive. to my eye it looks very similar to my metal Guy Hawkins, but plays much better. And it can be loud, louder than my Quantum (with out spoiler). I played it with a V16 2.5 and I'm not into the bright sound these days, and it had a bit of an edge to it I didn't like.(not as evident on the recording, so it might just be me) I did a crappy run thru of Harlem Nocturne with it and with my Bootman Link. Both flat and dry with my Rode NT2 (on my Buffet SDA)
Barkley (http://www.billmecca.com/music/barkley.mp3)
Link (http://www.billmecca.com/music/link.mp3)
It will be sent on its way to the next stop tomorrow.

[johnnypw]

After reading through all the posts regarding Barkley mouthpieces, I've decided to take the plunge and I ordered one from Junior. He responded quickly to all my emails, and gave me some links on Youtube regarding his mouthpieces. So far, the impression I got from the reviews in this forum are quite positive, except for other personal preferences, of course like size, etc.... Junior just emailed me this morning and told me that he has mailed the piece to me today.
I am currently using a Link but am interested in a brighter edge tone, something like the Brecker (although I'll never be one) and early Whalum sound before he switched to Sugal, but don't want to pay the exhorbitant Guardala pieces, original or the new ones from Europe.
So far, I can say that the experience in dealing with Junior is very pleasant and I'll put
up my reviews once I play test them for a little while.

[johnnypw]

Well, after a couple of weeks of playing the Barkley K9, I am very pleased to say that it produces the kind of sound that I was aiming for. It's loud but can play softly, very effortless to play, it has that kind of bright sound like the Dukoff and Guardala that I like. Since it's very light, the mouthpiece resonates very well, even my middle school son wants to play it in his band because he finds it very easy to play compared to his mouthpiece. Well done, Junior. I'm sure other player might want a more solid feel mouthpiece like metal or hard rubber (this is very light compared to either one) but in the end, it's the sound that matters to me and this is a keeper.

[Dr G]

Excellent news. I hosted a Barkley review as well. Although they were not for me, I could see that they do fill a niche. The fair price and good service are a bonus. I'm glad you found them.

Welcome to SotW!

[Mark R]

I bought the Barkley Jazz 7 mouthpiece seen in the picture from Giganova. At first I thought it was kinda nasally and middy sounding. I usually play mouthpieces that are between .110-.120 with a 2.5 Queens reed. After trying different ligatures and finally settling on an old Lebayle Fusion ligature and a Rico Jazz Select 3 soft reed...wow it is an outstanding mouthpiece....lots of power, plenty of edge, but a great subtone and it plays with a lot of different color to the tone depending on dynamics. Also plays good in all ranges of the horn...for the moment it is still a little "hard" toned on the low end when I go for the bell key notes...I think in due time after getting calibrated to the piece it will be fine...also having to get use to playing a little smaller tip.

At first I thought about having it opened up some...but now having moved to a little harder reed I am happy with the mouthpiece as is. Very well made product. I plan to contact Junior about making me some other mouthpieces in the future....I like both the material and most of all....Juniors work is very good IMO.

[Mark R]

Just thought I'd check back in after playing on the Barkely Jazz 7 tenor mouthpiece for a few weeks here. Like many other SOTWers I've owned and played on almost all the low, mid and high end pieces out there , with exception of JJDV, Freddie Gregory and Theo's pieces I've owned most of the others at some point.

I really love the way the Barkley is playing for me...really has me thinking about selling several of my pieces that I never thought about selling before. I like it to the point that I plan to have Junior make me one more of the same piece so I can insure that I have one as a back up. It really gives me the flexibility I've wanted being quite a powerful piece...with enough edge and plenty of rich fullness of sound...plays with (for me) a great equation of being free blowing yet the right amount of resistence to play with great focus whether it is something more intense or laying back....just a darn sweet playing piece. I am very happy with this set up....also found it to play great and with no fuss with a Rovner Ed Daniels ligature.

;)

[William Bua]

Hello all,
I own a K-9 piece and it does everything I want it to. I am playing it with a Cannonball Vintage and a Eddie Daniels ligature and a Hahn 2, and it really sings. It plays way better than any Dukoff or Guardala I have tried, and I have had some good ones that were refaced by mojo and EZ. The main difference is how the Barkley plays at lower volumes. It can sound sweet without that brittle sound and when you want bright, its there!!. I like it so much, I also bought the LOUD model for my alto and love it too. I won't sell my RPC 115B because it works better with the TH&C than the Barkley does. The RPC goes into the drawer until I find a TH&C and maybe I'll acquire the barkley with less baffle for the TH&C. I strongly endorse the Barkley pieces.

[Barkley]

Hi everyone,

I always read the posts on SOTW but I barely write, 1 reason is the language that I really don't dominate and the other is time.

But I do appreciate your time to review and comment my mouthpieces, and I took a lot of your advices.

Thank you all for the posts.

Sincerly

Junior