#Tenor sax mouthpiece facing chart series#

The castings are thenВ faced and finished by some of the most skilled mouthpiece makers in the industry. To cure the rubber, the mouthpieces go through several cycles of heating and cooling to create a cured, hard rubber casting that is ready for facing. After the rubber blanks come out of the molds, they are very soft rubber castings. Ralph insisted on old Steam Transfer Presses to produce the blanks rather than modern methods, which can leave soft spots in the rubber. No other mouthpiece company uses theВ same molds or blanks. In 1990, Ralph designed the molds that create the blanks for his clarinet, alto and tenor mouthpieces. The rubber is made from the finest grade European Ebonite similar to the same rubber formula that was used by the best manufacturers during the 1920s-1950s. The rubber formula is unique to the Morgan Company. Finally, Brian Powell, made Morgan mouthpieces for over 15 years before starting his own re-facing business and has recently returned to the Morgan team. John MacQueen, has been a crafter with Morgan since 1992 and has handle the production of 1000вЂ™s of Morgan mouthpieces for the past 25 years. Erik Greiffenhagen, has been with the company for over 30 years and the lead designer for several of the mouthpieces the company produces today. Ralph sadly passed away on Augbut his company and products are being continued by RalphвЂ™s long-time employees alongside David and Teresa Hoskins who currently own the company. With the strong attention to detail, Ralph designed and produced some of the best-hand crafted hard rubber mouthpiece in the world. His goal was to bring back the вЂњChart DesignedвЂќ and handcrafted mouthpieces which were popular in the 1930s-1960s.

In the early 1980s, Ralph started his own mouthpiece manufacturing company. I will be discussing the tone, intonation, build quality, and my overall thoughts but first, I would like to provide you some background and history on Morgan mouthpieces. Today, I will be reviewing the Morgan Jazz tenor and soprano mouthpieces which is one of the four models currently being offered by Morgan (Classical, Jazz, Vintage, Excalibur). I have heard great things about the Morgan line of mouthpieces from many saxophone students, professionals, and teachers who say they are consistent from mouthpiece to mouthpiece, play evenly, and are an overall great value. What you do with all this information is up to you, but now you have it.Morgan mouthpieces have been around for over 30+ years and have been quite sough after as a viable alternative to the highly desirable and expensive vintage Meyer and Otto Link hard rubber mouthpieces.

#Tenor sax mouthpiece facing chart series#

In any event, I felt that this Series on Rico Mouthpieces wouldnвЂ™t be complete without a listing of all the currently available Graftonite and Metalite offerings. I wonder if these measurements are KimвЂ™s findings, or come from Rico directly? I also wonder how close these measurements are to the original mouthpieces that Arnold Brilhart designed for Rico in the 1980s. KimвЂ™s findings are very interesting, and show that what Rico was striving for, and what they actually produced, are somewhat different.ДЄlso included on this pageВ from KimвЂ™s website, is aВ full facing chart for the Graftonite mouthpieces. Sax repair tech Kim Slava has done his own measurements, and posted them on hisВ website. Note that I said Rico claims that the tip openings on their new Metalite mouthpieces are the same as their old ones. The Current Selection Of Rico Graftonite & Metalite Mouthpieces When compiling this chart, I used solely the information on the Rico website. However, when asked, Rico will claim that the old tip openings from their original Metalite mouthpieces, are the ones that are being used on the new pieces.

Furthermore, Rico does not list any tip opening information on their website. While Rico used to note the tip openings on the side of the their boxes, this is no longer the case. I get an incredible amount of traffic on my site looking for information on Rico mouthpieces.В I decided now that the reintroduced Metalite line-up is complete, it was time to do up a chart of all the currently available Metalite, as well as Graftonite offerings.

The Currently Available Rico Graftonite & Metalite Mouthpieces.

The New Rico Metalite Family Is Finally Complete.

Facing Chart For All The Original Rico Metalite Saxophone Mouthpieces.

A Review Of Some Original Metalite Mouthpieces.

The Original Metalite Facings For Tenor Saxophone.

Old Stock Rico Metalite Mouthpiece Facing Charts For Alto & Soprano.Rico Royal Metalite Baritone Chamber & Facing Info.Making A Homemade Baffle For A Sax Mouthpiece.An Interesting Hard Copy Bass Sax Resource.