Rico Graftonite Alto Sax Mouthpiece, B3

After letting my saxophone sit in a corner of my room for twenty years, I decided to pick up again. The first thing I was told to do was downgrade my mouthpiece to a student model. I used a Meyer M6 or a Selmer Soloist E back in the day —both were pretty open and tired me out quickly. After asking around and watching some video reviews, I decided on this Rico. Mainly because it had good reviews and the price was right. I only need to rebuild my chops and will advance to better mouthpieces in three to six months, so I didn’t want to invest in an expensive mouthpiece. This one is NOT it – this mouthpiece is “Sheet,” just real “Sheet”! It is really stuffy, and it was hard to get the notes started. This was using a 2.5 reed. Maybe it was the reed, so I moved to 2.0 reed. It was still really stuffy; there was no response, and the notes wouldn’t speak. I then switched to my Meyer, thinking it was me or the horn – but with a light reed, the Meyer was clean and crisp. The Rico mouthpiece has a thin rail that is bumped up a bit, and you have to get the reed on that just right – this is a pain to deal with, and I would not advise it for younger players at all. Finally, I can only say that you get what you pay for, so maybe spending a bit more would do the trick. Look into the Yamaha 4C or the Better Sax classic. These are about $10 more and have had excellent reviews, too! However, I may start with really light reeds and work back up; it would be cheaper!