good bari piece?

[Brian The Hornman]

http://cgi.ebay.com/King-Pickle-barrel-Baritone-Sax-Mouthpiece-Vintage_W0QQitemZ250263659474QQihZ015QQcategoryZ16 233QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Is this worth bidding on? I don't really know anything about this model of mouthpiece but i'm trying to get into playing jazz bari and I need some sort of mouthpiece to play on so any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[themacintrasher]

You might bid on it, and try to get it for cheap.

[jmathesonjr]

The place you do not want damage to occur on a mouthpiece is the tip and rails. The chances that any mouthpiece will play well with damage to these diminishes with each nick and scratch.

This one is listed as having damgae beyond normal use. Unless you are willing and able to put some money (as high as $250.00 or more) to have some mouthpiece tech straighten out the damage, I think the $1.50 bid is about $1.49 too much.

A decent bari mouthpiece will run $150.00 plus.

The mouthpieces I recommend are Berg Larsen, Otto Link and Meyer. Vintage mouthpieces are worth checking out, if they are free of damage on the tips and rails.

[Rahspeak]

on Bari the following question is EXTREMELY important:

what horn are you playing it on?

If you are playing it on a vintage bari like a Conn or The Martin it would probably work great, especially if you send it to Erik Greiffenhagen. He refaces mouthpieces for vintage saxes that are absolute killers. This one has the chamber and probably the quality of rubber to have a lot of potential, but it would need a reface.

If, however, you are going to play a modern horn like a Yamaha, a mouthpiece with that much chamber has the potential to play really, really flat.

Those have been my experiences anyway. Jmathesonjr makes good, tried and true recommendations and you can't go wrong with any of them. My mouthpiece is a HR link reworked by Phil Barone with a huge baffle added, and I am 100% satisfied, and have been for months with daily practice and regular performances on that setup. But, they are pricey, so I'd probably just start with the regular HR link until you know what else you want out of it.

[DavidW]

"but has damage to the tip or rails beyond normal use"

When I read this, I wondered if it was supposed to say "but has no damage to the tip or rails beyond normal use". I don't see any major damage in the pics, but they do not show closeups either.

[Martin Williams]

I had a Bundy piece like this, and its an okay thing, its really closed though for the baffle thats in it.

Since its cheap, why not give it a shot.

[jmathesonjr]

If you can get the thing for $2.00 including shipping, I say go for it. Otherwise, look for something that may not require a repair tech.

It is true that the seller may have mistyped his description, but then again he may not have.

[Merlin]

That's not a "pickle-barrel" style piece anyways. It's very similar to the current slimline Links and Meyers.

There won't be a tuning problem with modern horns, but you'd probably find it a bit closed at the tip.

Vandoren B75 is my best recommendation to most people, although if you're starting out and going to playing mostly in concert band, a Vandoren BL4 is great.

[Brian The Hornman]

Ok, I decided not to go with the King. Does anyone have any suggestions for a bari piece that I should try instead. I usually play on a Meyer 5M on the alto and it's a tad small but I really like it especially for small group, and I use a Link 7 (metal) on tenor that is kind of bright but I use that mainly for funk and blues stuff. The only time I ever had to play jazz bari I used a borrowed Link 8 (rubber) that I liked but it was maybe just a little bit big for my tastes. Any ideas?

[Merlin]

Ok, I decided not to go with the King. Does anyone have any suggestions for a bari piece that I should try instead. I usually play on a Meyer 5M on the alto and it's a tad small but I really like it especially for small group, and I use a Link 7 (metal) on tenor that is kind of bright but I use that mainly for funk and blues stuff. The only time I ever had to play jazz bari I used a borrowed Link 8 (rubber) that I liked but it was maybe just a little bit big for my tastes. Any ideas?

VANDOREN B75!