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Florida Legacy metal - New model from Marantz Custom Mouthpieces!

17K views 34 replies 15 participants last post by  birdlives1955 
#1 · (Edited)
Very excited to announce a project that has been long in the making: The new Florida Legacy metal tenor saxophone mouthpiece from Marantz Custom Mouthpieces!

This mouthpiece is a metal tenor model that has a 1960s Florida STM-style chamber and a classic clamshell rollover baffle design. Straight up vintage characteristics with the very best and most detailed hand finishing I am capable of for each one that leaves the shop! These are expensive to produce and require many hours of hand finishing, but it's an endeavor that is close to my heart and I am excited about its release here in the beginning of 2016.

These are available now. More details on my website www.marantzcustommouthpieces.com

Some quick photos and a video clip below. Higher quality pictures and soundclips await, but I couldn't wait to post this so stuff recorded on my phone will have to suffice for now!

Photos are inverted for some reason... Why is SOtW doing that? They are the right format on my laptop... Anyway, here also is the video clip!

EDIT: HQ soundclip now available! I have posted a track of "There Will Never Be Another You" on a Florida Legacy 6 here:

Best,
Matt
 

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#5 ·
Thank you so much Tony! I really appreciate your kind words. It's been a lot of work and a lot of time invested in bringing this model to fruition, so I'm excited to have finally gotten the Florida Legacy off the ground to say the least! The 1960s metal Florida Link is a piece that is very close to my heart, and many of my favorite players played or currently play one (Trane being the most important one, for me, but there were many others.) My goal with this project was to try and bring the design back to life as truly as possible by modern standards, and try to do it justice!

As far as the price goes, I have listed it for sale on my website www.marantzcustommouthpieces.com and it is available but to be quite honest I am going to let that work itself out. Right now, I have tried to set the price to be comparable to other boutique makers in the field who are using similar processes as I am to produce my mouthpieces. The materials & machining costs for the blanks are very expensive, then there's gold electroplating, and finally it takes me sort of an obscene amount of time to hand finish each one because I try to make them look as good as they play which I believe is important from several different perspectives. Internally, the machining marks removal process is done by hand, but the polished interior actually does make a positive difference in the playing characteristics (the smoothness of airflow can really be felt by the player), so I believe the extra hours invested in that part of production are worth it. Because of all this, and also accounting for the fact that if retailers pick them up I will need to start reasonably high to help a retail venture make sense, I have priced them at $650 out of the gate.

I won't list the names of other comparable boutique makers here out of genuine respect for their product lines, but if you look at the prices they are setting with their models mine are actually still a bit under the current retail price cap on boutique sax mouthpieces. So, I don't feel self conscious about the price knowing that, having tried everything out there, as a player I am choosing to play the Legacy pieces for all my music making and can honestly recommend it as a player first and a maker second. Hope that makes sense, anyway.

Cheers, and thanks again,
Matt
 
#4 ·
Thank you so much! It means a lot to have your support. Best wishes for your ventures as well! Your stuff plays great, I've tried it.
 
#7 ·
Matt,
You don't need to defend your prices to anyone. You charge what you want to charge and if people feel they are worth that price, they will buy them. If they don't, they will go elsewhere.

Some guys will say your prices are too high and others will be OK with them and feel they got a bargain.
Example--Recently, I had a great player from New York come to my home with a mint condition Early Babbitt hard rubber 7* tenor mouthpiece with the original box. I got to play the piece and then I played my Robusto hard rubber Mpc, and my Robusto just smoked it BIG TIME for me. It wasn't even close. In fact, he felt the exact same way, and bought my Robusto for $450. He had paid $750 for his vintage Link.
Price doesn't dictate playability.

You can't please everybody. Continue following your heart and your passion for making pieces the way YOU want them to be.

One of the things I respect about you a lot, is that you don't try to hide that you are making a copy of a vintage piece. I find that there are too many pieces in the marketplace where the makers tell you they spent a ton of time working SO hard on making this certain magical piece, when in reality, it's just a copy of a certain vintage piece with a modern looking outer shell. Or, they'll tell you how great it is and not tell you that it's really just a copy of the same vintage model that everyone else is copying too.
I wish people would be upfront about this so that people who are looking to buy a copy of a specific vintage piece will know what they're getting into. In other words, if someone is making a Meyer Brothers alto copy and they don't tell you that's what their piece is, people will buy it not knowing that, and there are some people that will not want that because they haven't had good experience with those specific vintage pieces. If mouthpiece makers would just be more upfront, buyers would know whether to try their piece or not based on whether they like that specific vintage model or not.

I appreciate that you are always very upfront about that. Theo has his Meyer Brothers alto copy and slant sig tenor copies out, and I appreciate that he was forthright about what those pieces were copies of. Other guys are too and I appreciate that. This really allows buyers who like those models to spend their money on them to see how those copies are. In turn, it doesn't waste the money of guys who don't like those specific vintage models---so they won't spend their money on them because they know upfront what the pieces are actually copies of.


Follow your heart and do what you think is right with your mouthpieces and everything else will fall into place. If you aren't moving enough pieces because the prices are too high for most, then you can just lower the price. You will see over time how your pieces are moving and at what price you should be at.
People are hip today to the fact that the most expensive pieces might NOT the best playing pieces out there, and the least expensive pieces might NOT the worst playing pieces out there just because they're less expensive than others out there.


ENJOY YOURSELF and congrats on your pieces.
 
#9 ·
Matt,
You don't need to defend your prices to anyone. You charge what you want to charge and if people feel they are worth that price, they will buy them. If they don't, they will go elsewhere.

Some guys will say your prices are too high and others will be OK with them and feel they got a bargain.
Example--Recently, I had a great player from New York come to my home with a mint condition Early Babbitt hard rubber 7* tenor mouthpiece with the original box. I got to play the piece and then I played my Robusto hard rubber Mpc, and my Robusto just smoked it BIG TIME for me. It wasn't even close. In fact, he felt the exact same way, and bought my Robusto for $450. He had paid $750 for his vintage Link.
Price doesn't dictate playability.

You can't please everybody. Continue following your heart and your passion for making pieces the way YOU want them to be.

One of the things I respect about you a lot, is that you don't try to hide that you are making a copy of a vintage piece. I find that there are too many pieces in the marketplace where the makers tell you they spent a ton of time working SO hard on making this certain magical piece, when in reality, it's just a copy of a certain vintage piece with a modern looking outer shell. Or, they'll tell you how great it is and not tell you that it's really just a copy of the same vintage model that everyone else is copying too.
I wish people would be upfront about this so that people who are looking to buy a copy of a specific vintage piece will know what they're getting into. In other words, if someone is making a Meyer Brothers alto copy and they don't tell you that's what their piece is, people will buy it not knowing that, and there are some people that will not want that because they haven't had good experience with those specific vintage pieces. If mouthpiece makers would just be more upfront, buyers would know whether to try their piece or not based on whether they like that specific vintage model or not.

I appreciate that you are always very upfront about that. Theo has his Meyer Brothers alto copy and slant sig tenor copies out, and I appreciate that he was forthright about what those pieces were copies of. Other guys are too and I appreciate that. This really allows buyers who like those models to spend their money on them to see how those copies are. In turn, it doesn't waste the money of guys who don't like those specific vintage models---so they won't spend their money on them because they know upfront what the pieces are actually copies of.

Follow your heart and do what you think is right with your mouthpieces and everything else will fall into place. If you aren't moving enough pieces because the prices are too high for most, then you can just lower the price. You will see over time how your pieces are moving and at what price you should be at.
People are hip today to the fact that the most expensive pieces might NOT the best playing pieces out there, and the least expensive pieces might NOT the worst playing pieces out there just because they're less expensive than others out there.

ENJOY YOURSELF and congrats on your pieces.
Hey Mark,

Man, thank you so much for your nice message. Everything you said makes sense and I appreciate you taking the time to help me expound upon all those thoughts. Agreed fully. And yeah, as far as original designs vs. vintage modeling; I of course want people to know if something I'm making is supposed to be a copy of a vintage model or not, for all the reasons you mentioned and more. As a player, the vintage pieces that became popular are the models that I cherish the most, and they're what I and many other NY based players like to play too. Eventually I plan to try and do some more original designs. I do have some ideas for designs, of course. Unfortunately it is so expensive and difficult to realize just 1 model all the way from the conceptual design stage to the physical production stage along with the fact that I feel players in my particular geographical location are mostly looking for more accessible versions of the vintage designs aforementioned that it hasn't been tackled yet. I have a few different design concepts in mind that'll be stored away for later, but in the meantime if someone wants something different I have some leads on where to source blanks one at a time that are tweak-able enough that it's possible to meet the demands of just about any player's specs, it just won't have my logo on it for now. ;) You can make some cool and different stuff out of Selmer Super Sessions, Morgans, and even modern Links can be tweaked and customized into different types of beasts.

Anyway, cheers,
Matt
 
#10 ·
As a player I just want to say I'm extremely happy that guys like Matt, Mark, Phil, Phil, Theo, Ben, etc, are out there working so hard making these truly great top line mpcs that not only capture the qualities of the best mpcs in history, but also PLAY and respond very well. If you can't find a mpc to suit you these days, you either haven't done the search or will never find it.

Regarding price, my feeling on it is this: You could buy dozens of cheap off-the-shelf mpcs, investing hundreds to thousands of dollars in total, or buy one or two truly great pieces designed and hand finished by these master mpc makers and be done with it, for far less money in the long run.

Matt that looks like a real winner for anyone wanting a great Florida Link-style mpc. Keep up the good work!
 
#11 ·
I find myself with three Marantz 'pieces now, so you could say that I'm a fan of Matt's work. After spending stupid amounts of money buying and selling mouthpieces looking for "that" sound, I decided precisely that I liked the vintage Link sound as the palette by which I'd develop my own, and sought out Matt's Legacy line for a modern interpretation. I'm very satisfied, and now just look to different reeds to find sound variations - Matt's facings are exceptionally reed friendly.

Through the transactions, I can also say that Matt takes genuine pride in producing a quality product and puts his customer's enjoyment and satisfaction with his 'pieces foremost. Matt and other proprietors here on SOTW who approach their business the same way deserve their success.
 
#12 ·
Matt :
I liked the sound of your Legacy Double Ring and now you are making the Legacy Florida. As the recording on the Legacy Florida is not made with the same equipment as the recording made of the Double-Ring , may you explain what are the differences between these two Legacy ? I wish you a great success with this mouthpiece.
Many thanks.
 
#13 ·
Hi there Humardi,

Thanks for your note. Yes, my old metal tenor model the Double Ring Legacy and my new tenor model the Florida Legacy are closely related brethren. They are similar beasts, with the main difference being that the Florida Legacy is a better blank, with less constriction on what I can do with it, and it is much closer to the target of what I was originally trying to do with the Double Ring Legacy. The Florida Legacy has a bit longer clamshell baffle, for one thing. This allows me to make it play with more projection, but still not too shrill. The way the chamber comes on the blank, I can also sculpt it more cleanly than I could on the DRL. The Florida Legacy blank also allows me to make it with more normal sized rails. One of the things I was always fighting with the DRL blank is that the rails had to be machined so thin on that design (especially after we revamped it to get the chamber closer to finished on the blank) that my final rail shapes on the DRL would always end up borderline razor edged. I like a piece that plays with more normal sized side rails because it gives you some extra stability and the reed feels more comfortable in your chops. On the Florida Legacy, I can make the side rails normally sized, and the tip rails as thick or thin as I want. So it is a much improved design, with a lot of headroom for me to do my thing with it. I'm overall much happier with the result of this project so far, and it's my hope that if someone is looking for a piece for tenor that plays like a really great Florida Link, they'll pickup the Florida Legacy.

For whatever it's worth, these are all given meticulous hand finishing hours. I get the blanks machined, but they come to me very rough, chambers not one, the tips are almost square, etc. Everything is shaped, setup, sanded, and polished by hand.

Cheers,
Matt
 
#14 ·
Matt : Many Thanks for your concise answer. So, I, as many of the people that like your job are waiting for your high quality soundclips to hear how this mouthpiece sounds played by a good saxophonist as many of the posters here recognize you are .
Thanks
Humbardi
 
#15 ·
Thanks for the interest, Humbardi! I am working on the soundclips! This particular week, things are incredibly swamped, but I'm aiming to do some clips like tomorrow evening or Monday. Will post back when they are ready.
 
#17 ·
Yes, I can get very close to that same thing, and the new blanks allow me to make larger tip sizes so I could get one up to 9* or even 10 pretty easily without distorting any of the qualities of the blank's original design.
 
#18 ·
OK I made a soundclip with my nice mic this afternoon. My playing is a little rusty because I've been tied down to the mouthpiece making bench a lot this month, but tried to demonstrate the extreme ends of the horn and midrange evenly on a quick play-through of "There Will Never Be Another You." Hope you enjoy and that it gives a good impression of the piece!

Here is the HQ soundclip:
 
#21 ·
#23 ·
Hey TigerChicago,

Thanks for the message. I am playing a KeilwerthSX90R black-nickel-gold tenor with rolled tone holes. It's the only tenor I've ever had. Love it. Soon, I hope to have some friends in town (NYC) come over and make some sweet soundclips on these pieces as well. I want to have some other people than just me demo-ing them. Of course, Joel Frahm is playing in the video clip on my website, and he's on one of his MKVI tenors. On alto and soprano, I'm also playing Keilwerths. I also have a Selmer Series III alto in the closet that needs a lot of repair work and an overhaul. As soon as it is in playing shape (hopefully the end of next month I'll be able to afford an overhaul), I will use it for some of the alto clips. Anyway thanks for the interest.

Cheers,
Matt
 
#24 ·
Here are some photos of the Florida Legacy in new optional rhodium plating with new optional white biteplates. These are a couple of 10* .135" tips I made for a special order customer in upstate New York! It's exciting to be able to offer special order large tip sizes with these new color options. Eventually I might offer black rhodium as well. Here's the pics!

Best,
Matt Marantz
 

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#27 ·
I acquired a 7* recently in a trade and just wanted to bump this thread, mainly because I rarely see anything on this forum about these pieces. IMO, these are very nice pieces worthy of your attention and consideration if you are looking at the higher-end boutique "Florida copy" pieces. Once I found a good reed, this piece really sings, and walks that line of being just resistant enough to shape your sound without being "resistant" (if that makes sense). I'm gigging tonight in a rock setting, so I will be able to report more after that, but I have a feeling that it will be able to cut through the mix. A surprising bit of power with this piece, but with that fat Link core I covet.

Again, I'm a little surprised these aren't talked about more here.
 
#28 ·
I acquired a 7* recently in a trade and just wanted to bump this thread, mainly because I rarely see anything on this forum about these pieces. IMO, these are very nice pieces worthy of your attention and consideration if you are looking at the higher-end boutique "Florida copy" pieces. Once I found a good reed, this piece really sings, and walks that line of being just resistant enough to shape your sound without being "resistant" (if that makes sense). I'm gigging tonight in a rock setting, so I will be able to report more after that, but I have a feeling that it will be able to cut through the mix. A surprising bit of power with this piece, but with that fat Link core I covet.

Again, I'm a little surprised these aren't talked about more here.
Hey Buddy Lee, thanks for the thoughts! I am glad you are digging your Florida Legacy. How did the rock gig go?

For all interested, here is a video of the great NYC sax player Sam Dillon dealing heated lines on the Florida Legacy:

I hope to see more of these find their way into player's hands. I'll also post some photos here again!

Best, Matt
 

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#31 ·
A big batch of these is going out to China this week! The Florida Legacy metal for tenor sax will be shown at many trade shows in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau this year including Music China 2017. Please check them out if you'll be there!

Also, I wanted to share a photo of this piece in beautiful rhodium plating with a gold plated Selmer 404 ligature. I plated both here at my shop and they were a sweet combo, both to look at and to play.

Cheers,
Matt
 

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#33 ·
Leopoldo, Matt mentioned in the post above yours a Selmer 404 ligature, vvv.

Also, I wanted to share a photo of this piece in beautiful rhodium plating with a gold plated Selmer 404 ligature.
 
#34 ·
In response to Leopoldo's inquiry, here is the private message I wrote to him which may be of service to anyone looking to find out what ligatures might fit my FL metal piece:

Hey there Leopoldo, thanks for the message. Usually any ligature that fits a metal Link Super Tonemaster will work for my pieces. Vintage Link STM ligatures play great with them. Also I like Selmer 404's a lot, that might the best option. I am really interested to try the JLV ligatures, but I don't know if they make a version that would fit a metal Link or my piece. Also, the wooden-sitck ones from Marc Jean are some of my favorites, but I haven't tried one on the FL Legacy, only HR pieces (I love them on those pieces). If Marc has a model that fits the STM Link, it should fit mine, although remember my piece doesn't have a ridge. That being said, any ligature with an STM-style ridge built in should still fit mine, since the ridge protrusion would not be a negative in terms of the overall fit.

All best,
Matt
 
#35 ·
Man have inquired and I am no longer making this model. I have however been developing a new model to replace it, the Double Ring Legacy! I made an old Double Ring Legacy long ago, but this new one is a much improved version and will be made to the most demanding specs. I will leave a photo of it below as a teaser.

Matt
 

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