Recently I purchased a mouthpiece that was less resistant than what I had been playing. I tried several reed brands (mostly Vandorens and D'Addarios) and reed strengths. I prescribe to your view that there is no reason filed versus unfiled should make a difference. Therefore, I didn't put any thought to whether the reeds were filed or not. An old 2009 D'Addario post suggests that the less resistant filed reed will work better on a more resistant mouthpiece ( and conversely a more resistant unfiled reed will work better on a more free blowing mouthpiece). I went back through my records, and found that two out of the three best reeds for my older more resistant mouthpiece were filed cuts. Two out of the three best reeds for my new less resistant mouthpiece were unfiled cuts. By best, I mean while just playing the mouthpiece, the reed gives a quick response, facilitates bending the tone a full octave, and produces full controlled crescendos. Also, the reed gives me a good sound throughout all the registers when playing the mouthpiece on my saxophone. Does filing make a difference? Maybe, but I wouldn't go so far as to only play unfiled reeds on my new less resistant mouthpiece. I think there is more to playing reeds that are too soft or too hard depending on the resistance of your mouthpiece, but even then I think one could find a reed strength that works well whether you are using a more free blowing mouthpiece or resistant mouthpiece. Perhaps some might take exception to that opinion, especially if they are swapping between roll-over baffled large chamber mouthpieces for ballads one day, then switching to some powerhouse high baffled mouthpiece for a funky jazz/rock gig the next day.
Interesting point about tongue position. I’ve always tended towards a naturally dark sound, despite my early years trying to sound Sanborn-y. Makes sense now!
Regarding thin rails versus thick rails. The difference is a subtle timbre change. Thicker rails literally cover more of the reed up, so the timbre is slightly darker.
Jack, with all the different horns you worked with have you ever recorded their bore size? For example how much larger a Conn 10m or a Modern Rampone has vs a Yanagisawa or a Selmer Thanks for these videos, they are a blast to watch.
Here is question that has never been for me properly answered: a sax manufacturer, say , yamaha, offers a variety of necks which have smaller or larger bores. But these necks all start with the same diameter ( for the mouthpiece) and end with the same diameter ( into the sax body) So then how can the neck bores be bigger or smaller if they all start and end the same?
@bostonsaxshop That's interesting to me. Maybe jazz saxophone and classical saxophone approach voicing differently? Cause your background is mostly jazz, right? Like I was practicing a section out of Six Studies In English Folk Song by Vaughn Williams and it goes from a low B flat to F# above the staff in about 2 measures and I had to go very quickly from an "Ah" to an "Eee " syllable really a uick to ger that top note to speak
I suggest that it is more than just your natural tongue position that explains why a person has a tendency to play brighter or darker. It probably the whole mouth and voice box characteristics that you are endowed with. If one takes the time to do some vocal testing, and thus get an educated estimate of your focal range, that might help one understand why they sound like they do. My voice is approximately in the baritone range. I might sound pretty good across all the registers on my tenor, but if I took to playing the alto or soprano sax, I might play more on the darker side, and struggle to sound bright as I expect on those instruments. That might not be so noticeable to others as it is to you the player.
