Baritone Saxophone Mouthpiece Comparison & Review of 11 High-end Bari Sax pieces

[@danielfrc]

Thank you for this video Landrus 🙏🏻🎷🇧🇷

[@alejandrosantana5133]

The Custom Dark has a nice blend of all the sounds. The smoothest and crispest in my opinion

[@sax0tenor158]

The Wood Fred Lebayle sounds the finest, in my humble opinion. The sound is complete and detailed, and it has an air of ease. But we must acknowledge that the musician himself contributes significantly to the sound.

[@bluelandrus]

Thank you so much for listening. Yes I always seem to go back to the wood Rosie. It has a gorgeous sound.

[@grantkoeller8911]

truth is, you sound great on all the mouthpieces, so it's not the mouthpiece but the player.

[@gerrycappuccio4186]

You sound great on all of these mouthpieces Brian ! Thanks for sharing !this demo

[@bluelandrus]

Thank you for listening Gerry.

[@shirantha]

Hello Brian! Sounding beautiful as usual. It’s always interesting to hear a series of mouthpieces back to back from the same player. You reminded me about the wood Lebayle that I have owned for some time… the first mouthpiece that I ever loved :) Take care, and hope to see you in person soon.

[@bluelandrus]

Hey Shirantha! Thank you for writing, Yes I hope we can hang sometime soon, that'd be wonderful! I wish that Fred was still making the wood pieces. Its become extremely difficult for him to get wood that is aged and of high enough quality to do it so he hasn't made any for the past ten years. I'm still pushing him and several other friends like Carl Maraghi are as well :) Take care, B

[@shirantha]

⁠​⁠@@bluelandrusInteresting! Well I’m happy to add my voice to the campaign if it helps. I used the wood piece exclusively for about 3 or 4 years, until something changed and it didn’t seem to play as well. Perhaps it warped… hard to say… but I still have it. Fred was kind enough to make me a hard rubber piece with a ring ligature about 15 years ago, and it still serves me well.

[@JRM---516]

It's amazing how you can effortlessly subtone on mouthpieces with such wide tip openings. You sound great!

[@bluelandrus]

Thank you very much. I'm just used to these large tips and can't change now :) I used to sit with Fred Lebayle for many hours in his Brooklyn workshop experimenting with different sizes and the larger (9*-11*) always work best for me. Fred would give me pieces to try and not tell me the size just to see if it was in my head, but I always feel better on the large tips.

[@remotecontrolledstud]

The Wood LaBayle Rosie 10 sounds best/preffered to my taste 😊...

[@bluelandrus]

I've been playing that wood piece and the metal Rosie consistently for the last ten years. Every time I try something else I end up going back to the wood, especially for studio work. I've found the wood to be a little too dark for live work and use the metal.

[@juanignaciocaino]

Would have loved to hear this pieces on the VI you were playing, it's less perfect but has more "magic". Dug the Florida, the dv by and guardala mkii in no particular order. Thanks!

[@bluelandrus]

I was trying to use a more neutral horn than my SBA that I've been playing for so many years, but yes I totally agree about the magic. The Florida piece is a really beautiful sound, the only reason I don't play that piece often is because it doesn't have great projection, although the tone is luscious.

[@juanignaciocaino]

@@bluelandrusthought it was an early VI as they shared a lot of visual similarities. I have a 70k bari. And I totally get about the "more neutral" thing.

[@seandennis3148]

Thank you very much, Brian! I'm ignoring the Fred Lebayle pieces. The chance of me buying one is extremely low, due to various factors. The Guardala mark II sounds better than the Guardala traditional. I've got a Jody Jazz HR custom dark on the way, because of your fine examples playing one. It'll be a lovely answer to my Jody Jazz super jet. I also like the DV better than the DV NY. Great playing, as ever.

[@bluelandrus]

Thank you for listening. I hope the Jody HR Custom Dark works well for you! The first great baritone piece I ever got was that traditional Guardala 25 years ago. It gave me the ability to play solos with a wide array of timbres. Thanks again for listening.

[@loganivancik2086]

Great resource Brian! Thank you for this!

[@bluelandrus]

Thank you for listening Logan! I'm hoping this is helpful for folks. I'm going to do another couple of comparison videos for other pieces of equipment shortly!

[@AgostinhoClemarciosaxbaixo]

Ótimo video, parabéns,mas faltou a Dukoff 😔👍

[@johnasti7429]

They All sound great.... You're splitting hairs..... Which one do you play the most?

[@bluelandrus]

I've been playing on both the wood and metal Lebayle Rosie pieces for the past ten years. That's what I always go back to. The wood sounds wonderful on recordings but doesn't have enough power for some of my live gigs so then I use the metal Rosie.

[@jazzprof56]

First of all, you sound fantastic on all of them, Brian! Thank you for doing this. The differences are interestingly medium to small, but I can kind of sense how they feel different as well as sound different. I'm slightly partial to the first two, LeBayle wood (never played one) and Link 8* (I play an old Link 7* on bari). Could you share your reed and microphone info here?

[@bluelandrus]

Thank you for listening! I love that old Link, and the wood Lebayle is also amazing. I've recorded a couple albums with the wood piece and its been my favorite for quite awhile.

[@markwhite-what-da-jazz]

You sound great. I haven't played bari in years, but I remember my favorite mouthpieces. My best all around bari mouthpiece was a bronze Lawton 8*. I hear the new Lawton mouthpieces now days don't come close to the older ones. My favorite powerful bari mouthpiece was a metal Charles Bay 8*. The Lawton was amazing at playing so beautifully and with extreme range from the quietest to the loudest sound you need. The Charles Bay sounded amazing and had the most powerful bari sound I've ever heard, but was not delicate enough at the soft volume. I also hear that the new Charles Bay mouthpieces don't compare to the older ones. I loved your sound on the Otto Link. If I was playing bari now, I would check out the Drake Contemporary Rollover mouthpiece. Check out Jason Weber playing this mouthpiece on KZbin. I usually shy away from hard rubber mouthpieces for tenor and bari (because I love to hear a nice ring in the sound), but this Drake mouthpiece sounds amazing. I think Drake uses a harder material than hard rubber... some kind of resin. I used the Drake "Son of Slant" soprano mouthpiece for a year, but now I love the Theo Wanne Gaia 4 mouthpieces on soprano, alto, and tenor.

[@bluelandrus]

I've had some lovely vintage Lawtons over the past twenty years. They're very nice pieces. I've played a vintage Charles Bay bass clarinet mouthpiece exclusively for the past twenty years. Best piece I ever played. I tried the Drake pieces that a friend sent to me, and they were nice, but a little thin to my ears, but certainly well-made.

[@markwhite-what-da-jazz]

@@bluelandrus It's great fun trying all the different sounds we can get from different mouthpieces. I'm now 65 years old and I'm still addicted to playing the saxophone.

[@mambojazz1]

Hey Brian I wonder if these mouthpieces react differently to your low Bb SBA baritone vs this low A Series III can you get a similar sound?

[@desboiseric3435]

Hello Brian, I play on same sax: Serie III Selmer and Mouthpiece Lebayle 10 (Wood... no name, because I have not a Cat’s… 😂) Do you know Brancher metal Mouthpiece for Baritone sax ? Your Lebayle Rosie 10 is very VERY nice with your voice!!! 👍

[@bluelandrus]

Thank you for listening! Cool to hear you have a similar setup! I love my wood piece, so much color.

[@ishta]

No Berg Larsen? I love the Otto Link best , even though I had preconceived notions that it would sound not as good. Maybe because of the piece it is not as edgy to bein with but I know you can bring that on with just a bit more push.

[@grantkoeller8911]

Sound wise the Labayle in wood material could not be beat. I play Otto Link hard rubber Tone Edge 8 with a .120" tip opening. I wish you could have included hard rubber link 8....

[@ramen4302]

What about the Durga 5?

[@bluelandrus]

I’ll probably do another video including that and a few others like some vintage Berg Larsen pieces in the future but I never played a Durga that impressed me enough to keep.

[@Ngo_Ky]

Hi sir, how about with Selmer Soloist F/G?

[@EgilFurre]

What kind and number reeds do you use?

[@lowtone9]

Brian used to play Jazz Select 3M, but might have changed up by now. Maybe he will comment...

[@jamesfisher9926]

What is a Mr Stripey?

[@bluelandrus]

Hi James, both Rosie and Mr. Stripey were cats of mine that Fred Lebayle knew well. Rosie was a wonderful cat I adopted many years ago and when she passed away in 2014 Fred made a new piece that was dedicated to her, which has been very successful with players. Mr. Stripey was a wonderful and loving street cat that I adopted in the Bronx years ago. Fred Loved Mr. Stripey and when he passed away last year, Fred decided to make another model dedicated to him. The piece has a long baffle that opens into a large chamber. They are fantastic pieces and Fred just made a few of them.

[@jamesfisher9926]

@@bluelandrus thank you very much for the back story. I picked up used and play a Rosie 8, but never heard of a Mr. Stripey. You sound amazing on all these pieces, but there is something special about the Rosie in wood. I just picked up a wood Lebayle Jazz in Alto, and I'm loving it.

[@lowtone9]

Where’s your klangbogen?

[@bluelandrus]

Unfortunately I left it at my office at Berklee. I love the Klang!

[@lowtone9]

You’re at Berklee now?

[@bluelandrus]

@@lowtone9 yes I’m an associate professor of jazz composition. It’s an incredible place.

[@lowtone9]

The Rosie sounds really good to my ears. It seems like a piece that can be pushed to cut or pulled back to blend, kind of in the middle and always pretty.