Yesterday I spent the afternoon with my Buescher Aristocrat, 1960 model tenor sax... selections of reeds of strengths 2, 3 1/2 and 4 and three mouthpieces:
A. 1980's vintage Meyer 7
B. Brand new, e-bay purchased $23 Rico Metallite M-9
C. Used, but pristine ebay purchased BARI Joshua Redman model. I picked this up for about $80, I believe it originally sold for $350+
For ligatures, I had a standard metal band lig that fit the Meyer and the Rico. I had a DIY Rovner imitation that I made myself (see the thread in the mouthpieces accessories section) and a string. The only thing that fit the BARI was the string.
The BARI is a cannon. It's what I'd want if I ever played in an R&B band and had to seriously blast to be heard. It's wide open, bright, accentuates a lot of higher overtones, projects like an ICBM, and it is totally not what I was looking for. The mouthpiece is beautifully made, the quality is very high, and for someone looking to be heard in a seriously loud environment, wow. The mouthpiece responds well up and down the registers. It was acceptably bright and aggressive with the 2 reeds. It was actually unpleasant with a harder reed, and I would never use a harder setup with this mouthpiece.
Conclusion was that this was a high quality 'piece, but just completely not what I was looking for.
Rico Metallite M9. This mouthpiece was difficult to control in the lower notes with the harder reeds, but with the 2's...I loved it. The M-9 has a big baffle, and and a very large concave opening to the baffle and guys were telling me that I wouldn't like it because it would be too bright. On the contrary, I found the M-9 to be a wonderful, very-close-to-my-ideal sound type of 'piece. With a 2 reed the sound was warm and a little bit more "woody" than the Meyer, played with the 3 1/2's or 4's. I like the Rico best, and it was the warmest sound with my silly DIY rover-type polypro strap ligature. I want a "warm" sound (I'm a Zoot Sims and Stan Getz fan) and my dumb little DIY lig was actually warmer than the string ligature.
Meyer 1980's-vintage #7: This is the mouthpiece I've played for many years, it's just that I rarely play tenor. That will be changing in the future. Anyway, I don't like the sound of the #7 with a light reed. The sound goes really thin and tinny, unpleasantly so, with all three ligatures. Go up to the 3 1/2 and 4's, though and that Meyer totally changes. I get a much smoother sound, warm, a little breathy.
This is a new saxophone to me. I previously played on my Dad's old Conn shooting star, which I gave away (couldn't sell it) a year and a half ago. This Buescher is a much better instrument, even if it's the re-branded Elkhart 30A student line horn. It's nothing like the Yamaha 81U that I was "loaned" by the music store a few years ago when I busted a post off of Dad's Conn at a dress rehearsal. I'd love that Yamaha, but not for the $3600 it costs. I spent about 15% of that for t his instrument, and a once-over by my local woodwind tech lady.
The Meyer 7 with the string or metal ligature AND the Rico M-9 with my dumb DIY ligature both produced a really nice classic jazz sound. The Meyer, with the harder reeds was a tad bit "smoother"....the Rico M-9 with the softer reeds was a little bit more "woody" but still a very nice sound. The BARI, while a top-quality 'piece is just not my cup of tea. I'll be going through these two, the Meyer and the Rico over the next couple of months to decide which I like best, but there's no bad decision here! I'm really glad I spent the lousy $23 for that Rico!