A great new mouthpiece on the market!

[jbtsax]

These are the D'Addario Reserve clarinet mouthpieces. Lee Livingood who plays in the Utah Symphony is one of the consultants to the design and manufacturing of these mouthpieces. He is also one of the foremost mouthpiece makers and refacers in the country. I had the opportunity to meet with Lee Livingood at his home in Salt Lake City and to try some of his mouthpieces "customized" for sax players who double on clarinet. The two that worked the best for me were an off the shelf D'Addario X5 ($100) and one of his customized pieces for sax players ($200). I went for the "customized" one of course (so I could boast about playing a custom Livingood) . The best part is that there is now an affordable top quality mouthpiece for clarinet students that is extremely consistent. I would recommend these mouthpieces to anyone, regardless of the style they play.

 

[Tony Fairbridge]

Are these the same as the old Rico Reserve mouthpieces? I have one of the Rico X5's and found it a bit too resistant for me. I reduced the width of the tip rail by 50% and now its pretty good.

 

[jbtsax]

Are these the same as the old Rico Reserve mouthpieces? I have one of the Rico X5's and found it a bit too resistant for me. I reduced the width of the tip rail by 50% and now its pretty good.

You can probably tell by going to the link in my post and seeing how they look. It is my understanding that they are relatively new.

 

[Gandalfe]

Are these the same as the old Rico Reserve mouthpieces? I have one of the Rico X5's and found it a bit too resistant for me. I reduced the width of the tip rail by 50% and now its pretty good.

Tony, when you try a new mouthpiece do you use various strengths of reeds? I've heard that's what's required to really check out a new mouthpiece.

I can't do this myselfe because if I play a soft on one instrument, say the bari, and then go to a hard one on the alto sax, I can have voicing issues during the transition from one instrument to the other. It's a rare gig that I don't have to play multiple instruments so all of my instruments are on #3's.