Archive for February, 2006

Having an Impact

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2657 days
by in wisdom

I could tell you that I get asked a lot of times how I can change the world and I also have been asked a lot of times how I can be a rock and roll singer. And do you see what’s on the end of my fingers? Calluses. And what that means is that if you’re willing to play the guitar night in and night out for audiences of three people when you are coming up and finding that even your mother says tpppth it doesn’t sound very good. The point is very simply that if you care enough you can have an impact. Because in the long run we are not sure of a prior life or an after life � we’re all hoping for that. But what we can do is maximize what we have in this brief flicker of time in the infinity and try to milk that. And be hunger in a different in a different kind of way. Hungry for experience, hungry for meaning, and you can be terribly terribly effective if you want to be.

Harry Chapin

Mouthpiece Change

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2657 days
by in Saxophone Mouthpieces, Saxophones

I used to change mouthpieces often. It seemed like every time I showed up to play I’d have a different mouthpiece. My section mates never knew what I would show up with. A couple of years ago I made the decision to stop changing pieces all the time and to stick with something. I think that’s the best advice I could give a player. Stick with something and practice more.

For the last couple of years I have been playing primarily on the great mouthpieces of Ralph Morgan. On tenor I have been playing his 7L with nice results. My only compaint about this piece has been that it sounds a little buzzy . . . which is to say I don’t find it quite smooth enough. Three or four months ago I picked up a 7* Otto Link Tone Edge hard rubber piece from a fellow member of the Sax On The Web Forum. I noticed that the table wasn’t really flat and that the facing curve wasn’t quite right. I fixed those things and adjusted the baffle. I liked the piece but proceeded to send it out to another player who was looking for something different. Thankfully, it didn’t fit what he was looking for and I am now using this piece instead of the Morgan 7L. I find the revised Link to be smoother than the Morgan and this one has a bit of a slant vibe to it.

I believe this piece will give me a wonderful baseline for the hard rubber prototypes I am working on for my Chicago Mouthpieces line.

Sax Repairs

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2657 days
by in Saxophones

I like to have my horns in top shape all the time and one of the problems with having as many horns as I do is that you make frequent visits to the tech. I just got back my soprano (Antigua Winds A-590SPC) which is now playing great. I dropped off my 1960 Selmer Mark VI alto and it apparently has a major leak in the bis. In the meantime I get to spend some quality time with my Armstrong Heritage (Keilwerth Stencil) which is a fun horn to play.

More Vintage Ads

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2669 days
by in Saxophones, Vintage Ads

I have added another ten vintage ads to the Vintage Ad Gallery including a couple of really great ones from Otto Link and Brilhart.

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