So, I contacted Ben sometime ago and after some discussion ended up ordering one of these. We settled on a custom 20TD. I'll get into the details in second. The mouthpiece just arrived and it's very very very good. The tuning, playability, response...fantastic. It's a very different animal though than a lot of things in the market, but before I get into the full mini-review, I feel like we just need to listen to the sound first. I recorded these on my cellphone because I was excited to just have something, but it just can't capture the complexity of this piece...one of these days I'll have to use my real microphone setup and try to play some real music.
Ben Allen custom 20TD, Vandoren Blue Box 2.5, Ishimori Bare Brass
Noodling -
Chelsea Bridge -
Now, the details. When I contacted Ben originally, I was asking him what mouthpiece he recommended, and I gave him a description of what I was looking for. This was my explanation of the kind of sound I'm eternally searching for (from a long email I wrote him):
My sound concept can be summarized as a darker, bigger low and mid range, with a brighter higher register with soft edges. Think something like Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, John Coltrane, and Joe Henderson all mashed up and mixed an matched (with a bunch of other random guys thrown). This is the best explanation I can give you!
He recommended I try a 20TD with his larger chamber. I didn't have the money then, so I had to wait a while. Since then, he put a clip of Victor Goines playing a 10E and review by Chris Costigan of the three models. Based on these, I asked that he build a 20TD with the large chamber but also a lower baffle. My description was "something in between your 10E and normal 20TD". I figured the normal 20TD would be too bright and I would overblow it, and I think I was right. I can't imagine this mpc having a smaller chamber than it already does, so I think anyone looking to get one of these ... if you put a lot of air through the horn, get the larger chamber! I think the original 20TD chamber is designed for a smaller, but fast airstream as opposed to the larger, slower airstream people like me prefer.
Given the impossible requirements, Ben
really gets this right. Almost perfect. I think it could benefit from being a shade darker and giving me a little more room to blow (in order to facilitate the darker sound of Gene Ammons and guys like that a little easier) but one thing this piece does for
me that I don't get from a lot of other pieces is what I like to call "soft edges" in my high register. It's just easier for me to get that quality on this piece than most other link style pieces, which for me get thin when you back down on the air in the high register. Whatever is going on in the baffle and chamber really helps even a smaller airstream stay full and even, where a smaller airstream on a link just gets you a thin sound (for me)... I tried to do the soft edges thing in the higher register in my second clip, so hopefully it comes through a little.
Now, I asked for an 8* tip opening, because that's what I normally like. I can't tell you what the tip size on this one actually is though...the mpc tube it was in says 2.67mm, which is about .105" translated to inches, so Ben may have made a mistake and made me a 7*. IT DOESN'T MATTER, because the mpc plays so well! Normally when I get a mpc that's smaller, I grumble right away and it feels too small, but this one feels good. Whatever it actually is, I think a slightly bigger tip opening will give me what I was looking for in terms of something a shade darker. Maybe when I have more money...
Ben will have to chime in here at some point and verify what size this mouthpiece is, and how much baffle he removed, but whatever it is, I'm
exceptionally pleased with this mpc, soundwise. Overall the sound is a little more compact/focused and less "big" sounding than maybe some other pieces I've used, but I feel it has amazing control and flexibility. The chamber is very well balanced. The facing is extremely responsive in all registers, and extremely reed friendly.
Well done Ben, you have another fan. Whenever I can scrounge up some cash, I'd definitely love to get a 10E as well (probably in something moderate like an 8) and maybe another 20TD like this, but bigger.