My first Berg

[Nefertiti]

Well.......playing about 25 years I never played a Berg on my tenor. I've always wanted to. I remember Pete Christlieb came to my college and I was in awe of his playing. (Of course back then I was too young and foolish to know it was the mouthpiece. I just thought it was the player!):shock: I'm joking of course. But ever since then I wanted to try one. This one plays great. It has a big thick meaty sound to it. Very loud but not obnoxiously bright like other high baffled pieces I have played. I'm not sure that it's for me but it's cool to finally play one. I feel like getting a Rock n' Roll gig with this sound.:) I put up a clip on my mouthpiece page (http://www.neffmusic.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=88888892&Itemid=88888904) if you want to check it out. Steve

[10mfan]

where'd ya find the mouthpiece?

[Bill Mecca]

soundin good Neff!

I tested a 120/0 sms a few years back, belongs to a friend of mine, but it was his main piece, still is..;-) always wanted to try the HR version.

[Nefertiti]

where'd ya find the mouthpiece?

This guy..........Mark something??? Maybe you know him? He's this tan buff dude hanging out on the beaches in Florida pedaling mouthpieces on the boardwalk....:D

[Nefertiti]

For those who don't know......I'm talking about 10Mfan.:)

[Dr G]

Was it this one?

http://forum.saxontheweb.net/showthread.php?t=74576

How did I miss it? Didn't King Curtis play a (HR) 120/1 SMS? Schweet!

Please talk to me before you sell it to someone else. ;)

[Nefertiti]

Yep, that was it.:)

[DanSax64]

Hah, not only me with the berg thingy anymore... and that tan buff dude hanging on the beach...
Happy happy

[jd]

thats what Im talking bout!!! sounds really good. id buy it if you dont want it!

[10mfan]

That was such a great mouthpiece, and I'm so glad you love it!
It was so full and powerful and just FAT, FAT, FAT!

You sound fantastic on it!



P.S. I have been hanging out alot at Pompano Beach! ;)

[Carl H.]

P.S. I have been hanging out alot at Pompano Beach! ;)

Been using a metal detector - looking for vintage gold in them thar parts?:)

[fluteypiccolosax]

Yep, that was it.:)

at least it wasnt one of the mouthpieces he sells for a thousand dollars......:D

[Frequency]

Burning clip!

[zxcvbnm]

That sounds great, almost exactly the sound I'm looking for. What is the chamber?

[Nefertiti]

It says 120/1. I don't know what that means. I think 10Mfan told me it measured out to .113. Thanks for the compliments. steve

[ZephyrSax]

Great sound as always, Steve.

[Carl H.]

Just wait til Phil sees this thread.

[zxcvbnm]

That sounds great, almost exactly the sound I'm looking for. What is the chamber?

:banghead: Ahh, I wasn't paying attention and thought you were referring to the alto berg you recently got (used new posts button so...). Sorry to be off topic, but would you care to tell me the chamber on the alto hr one you have? I really liked the sound of it.

[Nefertiti]

There are no markings on it whatsoever except Berg Larsen. No numbers anywhere. The baffle looks somewhat similar to the tenor so maybe it's a 1. It's hard to say though.

[Nefertiti]

Just wait til Phil sees this thread.

May I ask why?

[zxcvbnm]

May I ask why?

bit of a back story, we should wait for Phil to chime in :twisted:.

[Carl H.]

BERG!

Slowly he turns...

[hakukani]

Phil expectorates on bergs.

[heath]

I never could find a modern berg that would work for me even after trying them in most tips, chambers and facing lenghts. I think one day I went through almost twenty of them and everyone of them played like crap.

The older bergs those. I have a wide body berg 105/2 and it's unlike any berg I've ever played. It has a thick and meaty sound that's not bright at all. The chambers on those older 50's bergs appear to be bigger.

The wide body bergs have rails that are wider than the reed and the table is way wider than the reed. It's a different animal to the modern berg.

I can't say I'd use it full time either as I prefer Links, but it's nice to find a good berg after all these years.

[10mfan]

Heath, I agree with you...the modern Bergs are lousy.

I have 50's Berg slant duckbills here, and all are superb. These are the real deal, and the sound is incredible. They are all also effortless to play.
Modern Bergs, Links, Meyers etc...have really lost the magic they use to have with their pieces in days of old. Thats why there's such a demand for the vintage pieces. Players want incredible pieces to play on, and many of these companies just dont make incredible pieces anymore.

As far as modern mpc makers go... Freddie Gregory, Mouthpieceguys, Saxscape, Lamberson, Ponzol, and Barone really make some nice pieces today. Those big name companies of yesteryear just dont do it anymore.







fluteypiccolosax...your comment about me shows very poor judgement, and the smiley face didnt put a smile on mine.
I provide the best mpc's out there, and prices can run all over the map depending on what I'm selling.
No need at all to make a comment like you did...nothing positive comes from it. SOTW is loaded with people making wasteful and unnecessary comments like yours. Lets try to stay positive here.

Peace
10mfan

[saxmanjack]

Steve, wish I would have thought to send you the old brass slant Berg to record a clip on it before I traded it. Maybe the new owner...
It had an unmistakable and quite noticeable 'berginess' to its sound.

But my real comment is: How the heck do you find reeds that work on all the different pieces? I just got some Vandorens in same strength zz, java, and v16, and they're all wildly inconsistent with no discernable difference between them.

[wersax]

I bought a really good Berg off eBay from our fellow SOTW'er John Gilmore about a year ago, after trying forever. The old Bergs are the way to go; you have a fighting chance with them, even though there are facing issues with lots of them. This piece is an old slant sig/long table SS 130/2 and plays great the way it is, untouched. Solid core with a compressed sound that projects well.

[Reedsplinter]

I have a 120/2 M from @1960 that plays the same way: very solid core, excellent projection. It was the first "real" mouthpiece I bought (got it in 1967) and it was my main piece for many years, until my RPC beat it out. The RPC just has greater flexibility. But that Berg is a fine piece. The newer ones are very different. I also have HR Bergs for tenor and bari. Good pieces, but they are a different beast from the SS.

[gary]

The best playing mpc I have, and have formerly played, is a Berg. It's a 105/2/SMS bullet chambre. Caveat - Ed Zentera did a lot of precise, artistic, and caring work on it to get it that way. I don't use it often because I prefer a Link-ish sound but that doesn't diminish this Berg's value. It has a big sound without being shrill, excellent altissimo, and responds quickly. Glad you got the Berg, Steve, and are enjoying it!

[heath]

Bad thing about the stainless still bergs when they need to be cleaned up it's expensive and I'm sure it takes a lot of work to shape stainless steal.

I'm not exactly sure why a company like Berg can't take a look what they were making 40 years ago and at least take a go at reproducing it. If nothing else they could come up with a better blank. The fatboy that I have looks like the one you'd see on Coleman Hawkins horn back in the day, it's a big mouthpiece. The modern bergs could pass for alto pieces, I'm not into my reed hanging over the edge.

[wersax]

Bad thing about the stainless still bergs when they need to be cleaned up it's expensive and I'm sure it takes a lot of work to shape stainless steal.

I'm not exactly sure why a company like Berg can't take a look what they were making 40 years ago and at least take a go at reproducing it. If nothing else they could come up with a better blank. The fatboy that I have looks like the one you'd see on Coleman Hawkins horn back in the day, it's a big mouthpiece. The modern bergs could pass for alto pieces, I'm not into my reed hanging over the edge.

Yeah, it's often not worth the effort to get a SS Berg worked. It's a lot of work, more expensive than brass and other materials, and, if you've played the piece a long time, it can be hard to get used to the changes even when the refacing is excellent.
It's hard to figure why the modern Bergs are so small; they really do look like alto pieces.....

[heath]

Maybe they were trying to cut down on the material costs. :)

I wish I had a modern berg so I could snap a side by side photo of my older berg and show you that it dwarfs the modern berg.

If I'm not mistaken Rollins and David Murray both play on the wide body bergs.

Anybody know when the wide pieces were produced or when the modern berg was shrunk down......70's, 80's.

Seems there are lots of variations of Bergs over the past 60 or more years.

[Honeyboy]

I have a "70's" Berg 115/0 I bought from SAXQUEST about 3 years ago. It is narrower than the 130/2 with a dropoff baffle which is quite comfortable in the mouth.The 130/2 is the scoop bill style as seen on Theo Wanne's website made from the 50's to the 80's. Mojo worked on both of them. Both play easily and sound great. My 130/2 is my main player so far. It can do it all! By the way, Neffertiti, the Berg stuff sounds great- you sound pretty good on all of the mouthpieces, I'm glad to see a Berg getting some positive airtime!:D

[saxmanjack]

The 110/2 that I bought new in 1978 is considered a 'fat-body scoop-bill'.
The body diameter is indeed bigger than other Bergs I've tried (their ligs were too small for it), even one that was claimed to be from the '60's. And a standard rubber soprano lig fit the old brass slant...

[Reedsplinter]

That sounds exactly like mine from the early 60s. Step baffle scoop bill.

[ving]

Phil Barone has gone on record with his disdain for bergs...


I used to play a berg in college, the first jazz piece I had--it wasn't great, and too small, but I remember liking the bright/dark amd projecting-at-the-same-time thing bergs have about them. I like the clip, it isn't a link sound but to me bergs have they're own character about them. For great example of what you can do on a berg with a SBA also, check out Kenny Holmen from the Hornheads group here in Minneapolis. Amazing sound. (From sitting next to Kenny on a few gigs, the sound he gets has a really great presence and when he backs off can be really mellow, yet really aggressive when he is blowing. But the presence and core is there at both extremes....)

I had a nice bronze berg last year that had the same core, but the pitch just didn't lock info me and as it had the shorter facing length, for me it just got a bit too punchy....


Yours sounds cool, though....

[charlienyc]

Well.......playing about 25 years I never played a Berg on my tenor. I've always wanted to.

that's funny and a bit coincidental. i've also been playing 25 years, never played a Berg and just bought one. i even posted a thread about it (http://forum.saxontheweb.net/showthread.php?t=76781) after playing it the first time. the positivity of my experience couldn't be more similar to yours, though i found a hard rubber 'piece. what a thrill, ain't it?!? :D

i'm trying to listen to your sample, but i'm not hearing anything. if you have a chance, please email me a sample. would love to hear it!
cheers,
-charlie

[Doug Lange]

My first berg was a 120/0. Pretty meaty for a jr. high and high school kid. All the alto players bought bergs, too. Then I switched to a Link STM. I kept the Berg for the necessary loud moments. In college, I let a friend borrow it for some R&B gig. Last time I ever saw it. That was over 20 years ago. His name was Mike Zeller from Montana...