[PaulGH]

Okay, I've got a late model King Zephyr, and exactly two mouthpieces. I'm pretty new to saxophones in general, so this is all a learning experience for me.

My first mouthpiece is a throwaway Rico Graftonite. It is ultraloud (at least, for my practice space), and sounds bright compared to #2: a Rascher piece. With a #3 legere reed (my practice reed), it is pretty close to perfect from top to bottom of the sax in terms of tone.

#2, the rascher, is dark and soft, as we would expect. This has serious advantages with my wife, who hates the baritone with a passion. The rascher is my "marital harmony" mouthpiece. While I love how it sounds, it is too large for the more modern horn (I suspect), and to get it in tune(-ish) requires pushing it way in on the neck. The sound takes more work to sound even from the high to low octaves, with the low notes sounding far better.

I like the sound of the rascher, but I need to overcome one problem: middle and high C#, C, and B are wildly sharp. It is way more than I can counteract without major embouchure changes. I can bend the palm key notes back into shape without too much effort though.

I suspect that this is just a "feature" of using a mouthpiece made for saxophones from a different era. Is there a modern mouthpiece that would give me the dark, soft abilities of the rascher without the intonation problems? Does anyone else have these problems when mating a large chamber Mouthpiece to a post-WW2 saxophone?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[MojoBari]

Try putting some temporary putty in the chamber of the Rascher. Then you could pull it out some on the cork to tune the mid-range. The high notes will get a little flatter. If it does not help, take the putty out.

 

[click]

I am happiest with my mid 60's Zeph using a stock Super Tone Master.

 

[Reedscraper]

Pulling too far out on the neck cork throws octaves out as well as low register response. You want a mp that pushes on as far as possible. The hard rubber and metal Links will do that and there are others so you have to experiment. Most stores have a return policy on their mouthpieces. Are the key heights right? If the A pad and G pad are too high the pitch will be sharp.

 

[bruce bailey]

I had a Zephyr bari and found that it (and many vintage ones) don't like that high baffle mouthpieces like the Rico. On my Martin, I found the Selmer S-90 to work well along with the Yamaha 5C so keep working with the Rascher. I have a Morgan Protone and it worked on the vintage OK and had some edge but I found it to be a little hard to control down low. If you need a Yamaha or Selmer, hit me up as I sold the baris and don't need the mouthpieces anymore. I sold my Zephyr when I got a Selmer and that was a mistake!