I have an alto Aristocrat also, and I have been using that lately on some rock gigs twhere I don't want to take my Selmer. I found that yes, the alto is not as fat and open as my tenor Buescher, but I am able to get a farily" pop" sound on it, but I am having to try out some other pieces on it. So far, I have had pretty good luck with an SR tech polycarbonate 85 piece. I used to own one of these and didn't like it at all after a point on my Mark VI, but it seems to kind of click with the Buescher. But, if you are using a big open berg, your concept might be a tad different than I would find ideal, so you might not like the SR...the poly seems to brighten the sound up and add a good deal of projection without a crazy baffle, which I won't resort to on alto...