[glenn]

Hi, I need a good advice on my set up. My alto is a buescher aristocrat and I use berg larsen 100/1 mouthpiece. It seems that my sound is a little bit fattier for a funky/fusion sytle of music. What mouthpiece and size is good for buescher aristocrat for playing funky/fusion style of music? Pls. help... Thanks!

 

[J.Max]

That's a tough horn for playing funk...but try a Dukoff. That's the funk mouthpiece of choice.

 

[glenn]

Thanks J for your advise... Is there any other choices of mouthpieces that would give me better funkier sound on my buescher?

 

[BarrySachs]

A Buescher is generally considered a "sweet" horn. With that said, getting a funky sound is more about conception than anything else. I won't suggest that you get some expensive handmade piece because I assume if you had the bread, you'd be blowing a Selmer or something.

Here are my suggestions for inexpensive ( under $200 US) pieces.

Brancher: Pascal Brancher makes a couple of metal pieces. One is like a metal berg (only better) and the other is sort of like a cross between a Link and a Guy Hawkins)

Runyon: Several models in the range will be good for funk.

Jody Jazz: He's got some Runyon type pieces with better quality control.

Beechler: Plastic small chamber or metal might be good.

Brilhart "level air": Sanborn played these in the 70s. So did Ornette.

 

[Dave Dolson]

glenn: It is more about you and your embouchure than any mouthpiece or saxophone. Once you have a good-playing saxophone (and that Buescher is among the very best for any kind of music) and a mouthpiece that plays well for you, then blow funk through it and you will be amazed.

There are a lot of threads on SOTW that discuss alto mouthpieces. DAVE

 

[glenn]

Thank you guys for that great advice! ! !

 

[ving]

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...

 

[Dog Pants]

The Aristocrat alto is fine for any type of music. I have both a "Crat" and a Conn "Chu" alto. I sound like me on both of them. I play a lot of Eddie Vinson, Jimmy Forrest, etc, blues stuff and the Crat handles that job admirably. I use a JJ normally, but lately have been playing a Selmer Scroll Shank. It took a little getting used to, but I can play "Bolo Blues" on this setup and get remarkably close to Jimmy Forrest's tenor sound. I think it's more to do with phrasing and articulation, and the fact that I've listened to that tune a million times. The Crat will be fine for funk. Just get a reed and mpc setup that will cut through the guitars and respond quickly.