0 Retro Revival Eric Marienthal Special Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece #7 (.085)

For years, I had a Beechler Bellite #7 as my go-to for fusion, rock, and R&B.  But about 6 years ago, I decided to start doing everything on a hard rubber Meyer, and was much happier with the sound, despite having to work a little harder in a fusion setting.  In 2017, I switched to a Retro Revival New Yorker #6 for everything, but in the back of my mind, I felt like I still needed a little more zip for fusion gigs.  Just for grins, about an hour before going on stage at the 2018 Newport Beach Jazz Festival, I put my old Beechler back on to see if it was the right thing for that day, but to my surprise, it sounded very shrill and harsh.  I put it away and did the gig on the Meyer-styled mouthpiece.

When Retro Revival released the Eric Marienthal Special, I had no desire to try it, having left the Beechler world behind (Interestingly enough, years ago, Eric had let me try out a mouthpiece that Beechler had made for him, but at the time, I liked my own much better.).  But this year at NAMM, I figured I’d give it a try.  I had been to the Beechler booth a little earlier in the day, and had gotten several compliments while trying out a hard rubber Beechler.  And while a lot of people liked what was coming out of the horn, I was dissatisfied with my sound on it.

I went over to the Retro Revival booth, with the sole intention of picking up a backup for my tenor Dukoff Stubby.  But out of curiosity, I decided to give the Eric Marienthal Special a blow.  I wasn’t expecting to like it, but that all changed from the very first note . . .

It didn’t play like any Beechler I had ever played on before, and I have owned several over the years.  It was surprisingly warm sounding, even though it has the ability to cut through all the electronics on stage.  One saxophonist friend who was also at the booth turned around when he heard me playing and was surprised to discover that I wasn’t playing on their Meyer-styled mouthpiece.  He was intrigued and began to listen closely as I continued to try out the mouthpiece.  Over the course of the next few minutes, even though I was trying to stay under the radar, a number of people started gathering around as I played, each of them attracted to the sound.  I had no desire to play metal on alto again, yet this mouthpiece was so much fun to play!  I ran the gamut of styles from really bright rock to very dark classical, as well as everything in between, and it proved to be a very flexible mouthpiece.  A few people commented that it didn’t sound like I was playing on a metal mouthpiece.  Even my friend Geoff Nudell, who was working the booth and is not a fan of metal mouthpieces on alto, mentioned that not only did he really like my sound on it, but also that he thought that I could play credible lead alto with it.

Needless to say, I left the booth with a new mouthpiece that day, and not the one that I intended on buying!  While I haven’t had the opportunity to see how it works in an electronic setting yet (and with the quarantine, it will likely be a while), it has definitely worked well in an acoustic setting, and everyone has liked my sound on it.  I look forward to getting back on stage with The Patrick Bradley Band once quarantine is over and seeing just what it can do when called upon.  If you need a little more zip to cut through the electronics on stage but are hesitant to play a metal mouthpiece on alto, give the Eric Marienthal Special a test drive . . .

F.A. Uebel Preference-L Clarinet

Ever since I acquired my vintage 1962 Buffet R-13 in the summer of 2011, my buddy Vinnie (who is a far better clarinetist than I) has coveted it. And while he knows that I would never part with it, every couple of weeks he nevertheless not-so-subtly reminds me that he is interested in buying it, should I ever decide to sell it.  With as much as I have been collecting vintage clarinets of late, one would think that there would be a greater probability of that happening, but why would I part with one of the best clarinets in my collection?  At least that’s what I thought before attending NAMM this past weekend . . .

Six months ago, the wizard who worked his magic on a number of my saxophone mouthpieces, Marc Yacoubian sadly passed away after a motorcycle accident.  In the wake of his passing, however, I discovered that he had been endorsing a clarinet brand that I had never heard of before:  F. Arthur Uebel.  Intrigued, I began reading whatever I could on the various clarinet forums online and found plenty of favorable reviews about them.  Still, I thought that any clarinet funds would be best spent on building my collection of vintage instruments.  But I was definitely looking forward to at least trying them out at the 2017 Winter NAMM Show.

As I approached the booth accompanied by my buddy Scott, a vocalist, I was greeted by Andreas Moe of Moe-Bleichner Music Distribution who described to me the entire Uebel line of Boehm clarinets.  Since I play mostly jazz on the clarinet, Andreas suggested that the Preference-L would likely be the ideal horn from their line.  From the first note, all of us noticed that there was something extra special about my connection with this horn.  I tried out the rest of their models, including their flagship model, the Superior.  But as great as each instrument was to play, I kept coming back to the Preference-L.  And even though this model was best-suited for me as a jazz player, the sound of it was versatile enough for me to sound like a respectable classical clarinetist without changing any equipment.  To ensure that we were hearing things right, Andreas had me play for CEO Victoria Moe as well as for Josh Johnson, one of their artist endorsers working the show with them.  Everyone agreed that it wasn’t just a great horn, but rather an optimal pairing of player and instrument.  For someone to find a signature sound on an instrument that quickly was truly a special moment.  I had come to NAMM with the intentions of just casually trying out a number of clarinets, but now I had an instrument in my hands that had my name written all over it.

Over the course of the next couple of days, I tried out all the other high-end clarinets at the show–Buffets, Selmers, Backuns, etc.  Yet while these were all fine instruments, each paled in comparison to the Uebel.  Without going into too much detail, the Uebel was effortless to play, had wonderful intonation, and had a huge sound which remained even and consistent over the entire range of the horn.  But more importantly, the sound had a sparkle which I had never heard before when playing the clarinet.  It was such a joy to play that I didn’t want to put it down.  In fact, with a horn like that, I would likely practice clarinet more than saxophone!  Of course at NAMM, technically you are not allowed to purchase on the floor, so unfortunately I was unable to take it home with me.

There is, however, a happy ending to the story:  I am buying that exact clarinet and they are shipping it to me later this week.  When you find the perfect instrument, you can’t pass it up.  It gets better, though:  Not only do I truly believe in their product, but they think enough of me as an artist that I am joining the Uebel family as an artist endorser.

So Vinnie, maybe I will sell you my R-13 . . . after all, it really should be played.

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Sean Perrin interviews Victoria and Andreas Moe of Uebel on the Clarineat Podcast

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Retro Revival New Yorker Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece #6M (.078)

It’s not often that I write reviews on equipment, but when it came to the Retro Revival New Yorker Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece, I had to write one.  In fact, with as much fun as I was having playing this mouthpiece, I had to put the horn down to tell everyone just how great this mouthpiece is.  In my humble opinion, they got this one right.

Let me give you a little background on what led me to the Retro Revival:

For years, I alternated between a Babbitt Meyer #6MM as my all-purpose set-up and a Beechler Bellite #7 for fusion, rock and R&B.  As much as I would have preferred to play one mouthpiece for everything (except for classical), this was a compromise because I just didn’t feel comfortable playing the Meyer in loud, electronic settings.  Still, that didn’t stop me from searching for one all-around mouthpiece, in the Meyer style.

A couple of years ago, I got close when I picked up a CE Winds 5 Spot Legacy, which was their tribute mouthpiece to the vintage New York Meyer Brothers mouthpiece.  It worked great in electronic settings, but only on my modern horns (Sax Dakota SDA XR-82, Yamaha YAS-62).  Unfortunately, it had serious pitch issues on the vintage horns in my collection.  It blew noticeably sharp, especially in the upper register on my Selmer Mark VI, but on my Selmer Balanced Action, the intonation was far worse.

I continued my search at the 2016 Winter NAMM Show.  I had done some research on a number of vintage Meyer copies and went to the show with a great deal of anticipation.  Unfortunately, when I tried a number of them out at the show, the results were less than favorable.  In particular, there were two mouthpieces which had been very highly reviewed (Theo Wanne New York Bros. and Vincent Herring Signature) which disappointingly didn’t even come close to meeting with my expectations.

A few weeks after the show, I invested a good chunk of change on eBay on a vintage Meyer NY-USA which had been refaced by a very reputable mouthpiece refacer from the Midwest.  It had potential, but had some issues as well.  Unfortunately, the wizard who worked on a number of my mouthpieces, Marc Yacoubian, sadly passed away before I could have him work his magic on it.  That one mouthpiece to rule them all became increasingly more mythical, and honestly, I had grown weary of the search.

A couple of months ago, I happened into Rusty Higgins’ Long Beach Woodwinds and saw the Retro Revival in the display case.  I asked Rusty about it and he told me about how Bob Sheppard, Joel Peskin, and Eric Falcon had gone about producing this mouthpiece.  While I was moderately intrigued, I didn’t have an alto with me, and told Rusty that I would give it a try sometime in the future, and put it on the back burner.

Since I have 2 lead alto gigs coming up this weekend, I decided to drop by Rusty’s shop today and give it a try.  Because the CE Winds mouthpiece had pitch issues in pairing with the vintage Selmers in my collection, I brought the Mark VI with me.  I immediately noticed that the Retro Revival took the air much better than the Babbitt Meyer I had been playing for years, and that the intonation was very good.  But what was even more noticeable was that it had a personality.  Over the course of the next 20 minutes, I went back and forth between the Retro Revival, my Babbitt Meyer, the CE Winds, and a Vandoren V16 A6 that was also in the display case.  Rusty popped in and asked if the mouthpiece felt as good as it sounded.  After 20 minutes of comparisons, I felt comfortable enough to purchase the mouthpiece and bring it home.  That’s when it really made a statement:

Long-favored as my horn best suited for sitting lead alto in a big band, the Balanced Action was the big test, and the Retro Revival passed with flying colors.  Not only did the mouthpiece absolutely sing on the Balanced Action, but the intonation was spectacular.  It proved to be a great pairing.  Over the next hour I tried the Retro Revival out on all of my altos (not entirely true as my 1924 Conn New Wonder and 1924 Buescher True Tone are both out on loan at the moment), and it played wonderfully on each of them.  In fact, I don’t think I have ever had all my altos out at the same time.  I think that’s a testament to how much I enjoyed playing this mouthpiece.  Here are the horns I used to test the Retro Revival:

• Selmer Balanced Action (38,xxx)
• Selmer Mark VI (118,xxx)
• Yamaha YAS-62 (1988)
• Sax Dakota SDA-XR 82
• Sax Dakota SDAS-1020
• Vibrato A1S III

While I still need to test it in an electronic setting, the way this piece resonates for me at home tells me that its performance on a loud fusion gig is promising.  Thank you Bob, Joel, and Eric for getting this one right!  Now I need to clean and put away 6 altos . . .

Silverstein CRYO SE Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece #8 (.110)