This week I’m happy to bring a number of specials to you namely ALL of my custom necks. These necks will really open up your sound throughout the entire range of your horn, fatten up the upper register and really help you play the high notes in tune especially on older horns. They fit most horns including mark VI’s but if there’s any question please contact me.

If you’ve been having difficulty with your sound and have been going through periodic mouthpiece changes it may very well be because of your neck.

See them at:  http://www.philbarone.com/accessories.htm

Give me a call if you have any questions at 212.686.9410 and I’ll be happy to help you whether you’re interested in buying anything or not. I’m always happy to help players with their equipment problems so please do not be shy about calling me.

Phil's Tech Tip of the Month:  Your Mouthpiece's Baffle - What is it and what does it do?

Every saxophone mouthpiece has what the industry calls the "baffle".  This refers to the little mound or bump inside the mouthpiece, right behind the tip rail. The baffle's purpose is to help manage the sound of the horn by controlling the speed of the airstream as it enters the chamber of the mouthpiece.

You will hear mouthpiece discussions which talk about  a "high" or "low" baffle and this can be misleading. What they mean in a most general sense is the height of that little bump relative to the surface of the bottom of the mouthpiece entry, called the "Window." Generally most people believe that the higher the baffle, the brighter the tone and the lower the baffle (down to no discernable baffle at all) the darker the tone. Trouble is, it ain't necessarily so.

A high baffle acts like an airfoil and, just like the upper surface  of an airplane's wing, works to accelerate the speed of the air passing over it. Your mouthpiece/reed combination act as a little rapidly operating valve to start and stop the air flow. This produces air pulses at a fairly high frequency. Just  play on your mouthpiece alone some time and watch how the dog reacts. The baffle accelerates these pulses to a higher speed and therefore a greater energy as they pass from the window into the chamber. This higher energy usually results in a brighter tone and a louder sound. But here is where the alchemy of mouthpiece design enters the picture.

If you had the ability to alter the shape and height of the baffle at will you would make some interesting discoveries. If you started out with a relatively high baffle and a very bright sound, and you gradually lowered the baffle incrementally, playing after each change, you would expect to see the tone become less bright and probably not as loud. But, you will reach a point where the mouthpiece, and this is very specific to your mouthpiece, stops becoming more dark even though you are lowering the baffle. In fact it will begin to brighten again. The reason is the relationship between your mouthpiece and the natural resonance frequencies of your horn. As you lower it more, and we are talking about very small increments here, it will pass through a series of tone color strata each with their own tonal characteristics.

If this sounds like mumbo-jumbo, you are right. Fact is, this business of mouthpiece design  and production is much more a craft than a science. The infinite combinations of face, baffle, window, chamber and tip, each defining the sound of the mouthpiece in very easily heard ways, are the purview of the artist rather than the engineer. In this world of laser scanning and CNC machining, it still takes the dedicated craftsman musician to find, even if it's just stumbled upon, that perfect balance of tone color and sound that makes a great mouthpiece.