Last year I started on a Selmer S80 C** for a Yamaha Yas-280. It was recommended by my sax teacher. Works very well. Tried out the 4c that came stock with the sax last week to see if I could spot a difference. It gave me a slightly different sound but it works equally well.
the 4c is considered a student mouthpiece. the selmer s80c** is not, so you started on a harder mouthpiece lol. I'd recommend sticking with the selmer as you can generally do more on it as its not a student mouthpiece. Either way, just use which ever gives the sound you want.
@@emoryhodges5556 The S80 C** isn't a 'harder' mouthpiece than the Yamaha 4C - it's a more expensive one made of ebonite with a slightly wider tip opening and was probably recommended as it would be used for much longer down the road than the stock plastic mouthpiece.
@@chrisperyagh i would agree with you on that, but typically the bigger the tip opening the harder it is to play on as you need more control over your air and more breath support. which is why "student/beginner" mouthpieces tend to have smaller tip openings. So if a student who knows nothing about the saxophone starts playing, a 4c would easier to get a sound out of than a s80 C** even if there is hardly a difference in the tip opening, it makes all the difference no matter if you are a professional or a beginner. not to mention the vastly different shapes of the chamber and baffle between mouthpieces. switching from the selmer is much easier then switching to the selmer. and it also depends on the person, some people have more breath support such as athletes or people who sing in choir. i do agree with your teacher as the c** is a much better choice then the 4c, but 4c is usually meant for people who arent sure if they will continue playing and dont want to go all out on a mouthpiece. or people who need a cheap mouthpiece that can get ruined (marching band)
Thank you for the nice Video. I am a beginner and I know the Yamaha 4C and the BetterSax well. For me, the response, especially of the low and high notes and the intonation, is most important. And I have to say that the 4C is by far better and easier to play than the BetterSax. You can always rely on the 4C. The more mouthpieces I test, the more I am convinced by the 4C.
Back in the day, when I was a classical player, my colleagues and I would always try to convince students to replace the 4C by a S80 C*, because it made a clear difference. Teaching jazz now, I see that the 4C works well with beginners. I haven't tried the BetterSax yet, but it looks cool ! Great video.
For those students in the USA, if you have the opportunity to go to Sweetwater in Fort Wayne, Indiana, they have demo mouthpieces you can try out in their demo rooms. I highly recommend them! Their selection is huge and their staff is very kind. ❤
I have moved from alto to tenor last year. It had a really really bad mouthpiece :D It was an Arnolds and Sons tenor saxophone and the stock mouthpiece was unevenly machined. The two sides were different thicknesses and the front part of the piece was also uneven with one side slightly skewed. It made the reed unbalanced which I've really felt. I've had a really hard time with it. I took the instrument to a technician who corrected lots of issues on the horn as well and proposed to get a 5C and switch to a stronger reed. The new setup helped A LOT. It helped with several of the issues I had (not being able to play in tune with the horn, leakages, high G coming out with a quart above the intended G note, etc). I've recently got my own horn and for now I still use the 5C Yamaha. But I hope to upgrade soon to an Otto Link Vintage. I love the sound that piece makes :)
Upgrading to a hard rubber mouthpiece of note will now make a BIG difference for you. I believe that even the 5C is a little restrictive on tenor as the tip opening is very small, even for beginners. I believe the BetterSax Classic may have been a better option for you, but glad it worked out. However, moving on, I'm sure a Link Vintage will take you much further than on than where you are currently! Jim
@saxworldwide Thanks for the kind words! It is indeed a very tiny tip opening - now that I've been playing for a while, I am really looking forward to an upgrade. But the budget was a bit limited with the purchase of my own horn :)
Great video, Jim... a lot of great suggestions. I was only surprised you didn't mentioned Vandoren in the upgrade list, but I understand you couldn't put all of them...
Possibly so on the reed being too soft - I was trying to place myself in the 'beginner' position, and I did find this setup on - Yamaha 4C and str. 2 reed - particularly restrictive! The slightly wider tip of the BetterSax mouthpiece alleviated this.
I was thinking of a Selmer Concept as my first one. It is a classical one so with a relative small tip opening, nice sound, and I could keep it for ever for classic. I am 47 and good loungs. Good idea?
I have no issue with this. The Concept has a sufficiently small enough tip opening not to cause you difficulties. I would just recommend gradually moving up through the reed strengths. When you are fully developed you need to be on at least a strength 3 to get the best out of this mouthpiece.
Just heard about the theo wanne "essentials" mouthpiece line up. Would love to see them put through their paces as well. Would they be a beginner friendly option or more of an upgrade?
They'd be more of an upgrade. It depends on which mouthpiece. Some of them are still the more extreme mouthpieces he warned against as it takes more skill to control them. Anything with a smaller tip opening with a straight baffle could be okay (the classical lineup?), but you still stand the risk of overspending on something you won't get the value out of and will soon want something different. Best to get one of the ones he recommended until one gets good enough to know what they want to try next.
You could apply what he said about the Meyer and Link pieces to the Jazz/Classical Essentials, and what he said about high baffle pieces to the contemporary Essentials piece. Cool that Theo put those out. But they are still quite expensive compared to basic options.
Do not use the Yamaha 4C it is not meant to be anything but a case filler for a technician or teacher to play test the saxophone with. I was told this directly by a Yamaha Atelier technician who was astonished I played with a 4C from 6th to 9th grade.
And they are still better than a lot of mouthpieces that come with horns... I played a 4C for 2-3 years then got a rubber Link 6*. Then a Jody Jazz DVNY a couple years after that.
Last year I started on a Selmer S80 C** for a Yamaha Yas-280. It was recommended by my sax teacher. Works very well. Tried out the 4c that came stock with the sax last week to see if I could spot a difference. It gave me a slightly different sound but it works equally well.
Yes, both work very well.
the 4c is considered a student mouthpiece. the selmer s80c** is not, so you started on a harder mouthpiece lol. I'd recommend sticking with the selmer as you can generally do more on it as its not a student mouthpiece. Either way, just use which ever gives the sound you want.
@@emoryhodges5556 The S80 C** isn't a 'harder' mouthpiece than the Yamaha 4C - it's a more expensive one made of ebonite with a slightly wider tip opening and was probably recommended as it would be used for much longer down the road than the stock plastic mouthpiece.
@@chrisperyagh i would agree with you on that, but typically the bigger the tip opening the harder it is to play on as you need more control over your air and more breath support. which is why "student/beginner" mouthpieces tend to have smaller tip openings. So if a student who knows nothing about the saxophone starts playing, a 4c would easier to get a sound out of than a s80 C** even if there is hardly a difference in the tip opening, it makes all the difference no matter if you are a professional or a beginner. not to mention the vastly different shapes of the chamber and baffle between mouthpieces. switching from the selmer is much easier then switching to the selmer. and it also depends on the person, some people have more breath support such as athletes or people who sing in choir. i do agree with your teacher as the c** is a much better choice then the 4c, but 4c is usually meant for people who arent sure if they will continue playing and dont want to go all out on a mouthpiece. or people who need a cheap mouthpiece that can get ruined (marching band)
Thank you for the nice Video. I am a beginner and I know the Yamaha 4C and the BetterSax well. For me, the response, especially of the low and high notes and the intonation, is most important. And I have to say that the 4C is by far better and easier to play than the BetterSax. You can always rely on the 4C. The more mouthpieces I test, the more I am convinced by the 4C.
Jim Cheek makes a terrific presentation. Excellent video for beginners.
Back in the day, when I was a classical player, my colleagues and I would always try to convince students to replace the 4C by a S80 C*, because it made a clear difference. Teaching jazz now, I see that the 4C works well with beginners. I haven't tried the BetterSax yet, but it looks cool ! Great video.
For those students in the USA, if you have the opportunity to go to Sweetwater in Fort Wayne, Indiana, they have demo mouthpieces you can try out in their demo rooms. I highly recommend them! Their selection is huge and their staff is very kind. ❤
I have moved from alto to tenor last year. It had a really really bad mouthpiece :D It was an Arnolds and Sons tenor saxophone and the stock mouthpiece was unevenly machined. The two sides were different thicknesses and the front part of the piece was also uneven with one side slightly skewed. It made the reed unbalanced which I've really felt. I've had a really hard time with it. I took the instrument to a technician who corrected lots of issues on the horn as well and proposed to get a 5C and switch to a stronger reed. The new setup helped A LOT. It helped with several of the issues I had (not being able to play in tune with the horn, leakages, high G coming out with a quart above the intended G note, etc).
I've recently got my own horn and for now I still use the 5C Yamaha. But I hope to upgrade soon to an Otto Link Vintage. I love the sound that piece makes :)
Upgrading to a hard rubber mouthpiece of note will now make a BIG difference for you. I believe that even the 5C is a little restrictive on tenor as the tip opening is very small, even for beginners. I believe the BetterSax Classic may have been a better option for you, but glad it worked out. However, moving on, I'm sure a Link Vintage will take you much further than on than where you are currently! Jim
@saxworldwide Thanks for the kind words! It is indeed a very tiny tip opening - now that I've been playing for a while, I am really looking forward to an upgrade. But the budget was a bit limited with the purchase of my own horn :)
Great information. Thank you
Great video, Jim... a lot of great suggestions. I was only surprised you didn't mentioned Vandoren in the upgrade list, but I understand you couldn't put all of them...
Thank you! Yes, the mouthpieces I mentioned were off the top of my head, and they don't always all come to mind!
A Yamaha C4 is never wrong........🤷 Unbeatable for 45.-€
Well that’s the thing, the bettersax costs about the same and plays better. So the 4c was the beginner king, but it has been dethroned.
100% to go for for that price. It's even better than some mouthpieces which cost over 150...
On tenor, it sounded like you also had better tone control on the Better Sax mp that on the 4C (maybe a #2 reed was too soft for the 4C?)
Possibly so on the reed being too soft - I was trying to place myself in the 'beginner' position, and I did find this setup on - Yamaha 4C and str. 2 reed - particularly restrictive! The slightly wider tip of the BetterSax mouthpiece alleviated this.
I play a very wide tip opening. Bigger low end and the possibility to get into extrreme altisimo. It does require muscle and that takes time.
I was thinking of a Selmer Concept as my first one. It is a classical one so with a relative small tip opening, nice sound, and I could keep it for ever for classic. I am 47 and good loungs. Good idea?
I have no issue with this. The Concept has a sufficiently small enough tip opening not to cause you difficulties. I would just recommend gradually moving up through the reed strengths. When you are fully developed you need to be on at least a strength 3 to get the best out of this mouthpiece.
When are you guys gonna restock the Sakkusu soprano sax?
It's due back in the early part of 2025
I think both Vandoren and Otto Link tone edge are excellent options- buy an used one and stick with it
Just heard about the theo wanne "essentials" mouthpiece line up. Would love to see them put through their paces as well. Would they be a beginner friendly option or more of an upgrade?
They'd be more of an upgrade. It depends on which mouthpiece. Some of them are still the more extreme mouthpieces he warned against as it takes more skill to control them. Anything with a smaller tip opening with a straight baffle could be okay (the classical lineup?), but you still stand the risk of overspending on something you won't get the value out of and will soon want something different.
Best to get one of the ones he recommended until one gets good enough to know what they want to try next.
You could apply what he said about the Meyer and Link pieces to the Jazz/Classical Essentials, and what he said about high baffle pieces to the contemporary Essentials piece.
Cool that Theo put those out. But they are still quite expensive compared to basic options.
We recorded a video on these a few days ago. Watch this space for its release
Ive always suggested a Yamaha 4C, but the game has changed a lot.
😀👍👏👏
Do not use the Yamaha 4C it is not meant to be anything but a case filler for a technician or teacher to play test the saxophone with. I was told this directly by a Yamaha Atelier technician who was astonished I played with a 4C from 6th to 9th grade.
And they are still better than a lot of mouthpieces that come with horns...
I played a 4C for 2-3 years then got a rubber Link 6*. Then a Jody Jazz DVNY a couple years after that.
Under 6 mins