[Enthusiast65]

An impression - many soprano pieces I've purchased, admittedly mostly from here and eBay, end up needing work to look and play as I want/ expect them to?

Drakes stand out as being absolutely perfect on arrival but maybe that just speaks to my preferences? Otherwise Navarro has been the absolute worst - finishing all over the place (unless Saxcompany buy seconds and doesn't declare them as such but I have to assume that absolutely isn't the case). The latest Navarro I bought was particularly poor but 3 hours work with my watchmaker files and play testing has sorted it and it's a great piece - as it should have been for the first owner when he bought it from the retailer. I'm not surprised he sold it on based on how it played when I got it with just 1-2 hours play time on it.

I don't have the same issues with tenor pieces, so is it a size thing? Yet I don't recall experiencing the same finishing and response issues when I used to play clarinet.

 

[barisaxer]

Soprano pieces are hard to find that play well. I use soprano planet as I find the finish work put them over the top. The size makes any problems magnify themselves. I feel your pain.

 

[HeavyWeather77]

Interesting. I've had the exact opposite experience, for whatever reason. The only two soprano pieces I own are a Bari .068 and Selmer Super Session (an "I" I think), and they were both great out of the box. I'm much more picky about alto and tenor pieces, I suppose.

 

[1saxman]

Soprano is just a beast in every category and the mouthpiece is no exception. I look for not too much 'duck' in the sound, nice low end, response out of the palm keys and of course intonation. The Soprano Planet 'Missing Link' is typically right on the money in all respects and allows you to do anything you want on the horn - any style.

 

[Sigmund451]

The smaller the piece the less forgiving. Sop pieces need to be precise to behave as they should.

 

[Merlin]

I was trying to recall if I've ever had to reface a soprano piece to make it work for me. I'm pretty sure none of the ones that have been steady players for me have been worked on. I still gravitate towards a very nice Vandoren S25 that I've owned for what seems like eons. The Yanagisawa, Jody Jazz HR*, and all the other backups tend to stay in the case.

 

[Guto]

I don’t doubt soprano is less forgiving to imprecisions because of its smaller dimensions but I never experienced soprano pieces commonly requiring work. I used a Super Session out of the box for at least a decade, than switched to a J Gerber, than a Soprano Planet and a few others in between. Been happy with all.

Actually now that I think about it I have several alto and tenor refaced pieces, but my soprano mouthpieces are all original.

 

[jolind]

I usually buy soprano pieces in the design I like and finish them by myself. Finding a perfect stock piece happens quite seldom, but I had that case once with a HR Toneedge (which I stupidly sold).

I still have one here as a backup that is untouched and nearly perfect ... but just nearly and I hardly dare to work on it, as the changes I would need are that subtle.
I find HR soprano pieces much easier to modify than metal ones ... I think some materials are more tolerant than others when it comes to the finish of a mouthpiece.

 

[milandro]

I don't doubt soprano is less forgiving to imprecisions because of its smaller dimensions but I never experienced soprano pieces commonly requiring work. ....

and I would say that the great majority of the soprano players, like the great majority of players, don't require any work to their mouthpieces at all

 

[MojoBari]

I don’t think this is the case. I could count what has been sent to me during the last year or two to get data. But I think this would reflect what type of saxes players play and how much time on each size. My impression is my work is 50% tenor, 30% alto, 10% bari and 10% soprano. Maybe less bari and more tenor than this.

 

[Grumps]

I've been playing soprano saxophone since the 1970's and have used a dozen or more mouthpieces over that time, both modern and vintage; none of which required any work other than practice.

 

[Sigmund451]

I think part of why soprano players tend to send less for refacing is that they already have it in their head that soprano supposed to be difficult. Many just view a poorly executed piece as being the nature of the beast...part of the difficult experience.

 

[minicooper]

I think part of why soprano players tend to send less for refacing is that they already have it in their head that soprano supposed to be difficult. Many just view a poorly executed piece as being the nature of the beast...part of the difficult experience.

I agree. When I started on soprano about 12 years ago, I accepted that there would be some challenges. As a matter of fact, the first horn I picked up after not playing sax for at least 18 years was the soprano.

I haven't had any soprano piece worked on. I've done some experiments with different reeds, but my Yani metal soprano piece and my my Soprano Planet Missing Link do everything that I need.

In contrast, I have had a few tenor pieces worked on, but more so just to clean up the table and straighten out crooked facings, and to dial in the piece to my liking. For bari, I have never had a piece worked on.

 

[Benjamin Allen]

I think part of why soprano players tend to send less for refacing is that they already have it in their head that soprano supposed to be difficult. Many just view a poorly executed piece as being the nature of the beast...part of the difficult experience.

This is a difficult one for me. Each of my soprano pieces arrived perfectly curved (numerous modern Selmers, a Yamaha 4CM, a Vandoren with an incredibly thick body and an Otto Link). We both know the intricacies of these pieces that would improve them, but I prefer to leave them alone when I can. I suppose I agree with you. Others don't know the intricacies and something as simple as a concavity in the table could impact a player's reed performance, which will impact their entire playing experience without them knowing it. Yeah, so we agree. Stay well and hope your wife is doing better.
Best,
Ben

 

[Lenny]

i've had good luck but I'm using stock Vandoran or Selmer pieces and I buy 3 of them at a time and choose the best one ( actually 2 so i have a back up.) If one was a lot better than the others i would send them back and try a few more till i had a good back up. So maybe that means I haven't had good luck since they've been different. If I didn't buy a few I might think I didn't like the piece itself.

 

[mmichel]

I don't think this is the case. I could count what has been sent to me during the last year or two to get data. But I think this would reflect what type of saxes players play and how much time on each size. My impression is my work is 50% tenor, 30% alto, 10% bari and 10% soprano. Maybe less bari and more tenor than this.

I think part of why soprano players tend to send less for refacing is that they already have it in their head that soprano supposed to be difficult. Many just view a poorly executed piece as being the nature of the beast...part of the difficult experience.

That might be it, but there are also many more alto and tenor players than soprano players.

There also seems to be a sociological/cultural part to it. In my experience, at least, tenor players seem to be much more prone toward "gearheadedness", and I've noticed that, although alto players almost certainly outnumber tenor players, there seem to be many more boutique mouthpiece models available, playtests on YouTube, etc. for tenor players.

I assume that Phil and Ben have more concrete information about this. If so I wouldn't find it surprising that these "gearheads" are more likely to get their pieces refaced.

In fact, I'm willing to bet that a significant chunk of the players who get their soprano and alto pieces refaced are people who are primarily tenor players and double on the smaller horns.

 

[Sigmund451]

I think the majority of soprano players suffer for no reason.

BTW... Reface work is a tiny part of my business model so this is simply an opinion, not a search for more work.

Additional nally, Ive had to repair work by supposed soprano experts who put out terrible work. So indescriminate refacing isnt the solution either.

 

[Grumps]

I think the better question might be, why would a player buy a mouthpiece requiring work.

 

[Sigmund451]

I think the better question might be, why would a player buy a mouthpiece requiring work.

Because some pf the few that dont need work are not always those that have the tonal color one might want. Vandoren pieces generally need less work than others but frankly I dont care for their designs. Also, people buy without knowing better...sometimes to save money, and spend more after trying to save.

 

[chilehed]

Why do soprano pieces so comomonly require work?

One reason may be that there are dimensional tolerances associated with manufacturing processes, and every process has a limit to its ability to make every part identical to every other part. The casting process absolute surface tolerance capability is the same for the different size mouthpieces, but it will be a larger percentage of the dimensions of a smaller mouthpiece, so you'll notice the variation more.