WARNING: I just crackled and peeled the lacquer on my Yanagisawa S991 while doing this! It wasn’t even directly in the steam. I guess they don’t make lacquer like they used to. I’m kind of pissed, but whatever. So my horn doesn’t look brand new anymore…you can’t tell from more than two feet away. I figured I’d warn everybody before they take a chance with their horn.

Thanks to Pete Thomas’s Saxophone Repairs page, I learned how to fix something that’s peeved me for decades! I thought I’d post it here for any of you saxophonists who are tired of wrapping paper around your neck cork in order for your mouthpiece to fit. I usually just have my repair guy recork the neck now and then. In this case, the Lawton mouthpiece I got for my tenor was a little looser than my Link, so I’d been wrapping a bit of painter’s tape around the cork. Well, guess what? You can expand the compressed cork by holding and rotating it in the steam from a tea kettle! I could actually see the cork expanding. It was a little uneven and lumpy, but no matter. Oh, Pete’s site also mentioned an alternative method of wetting the cork and holding it well above a gas flame. I don’t recommend this approach! I thought I was holding it well above the flame, but I still managed to burn some of the cork. If you don’t have a tea kettle, buy one! Tea is a lovely beverage.

DISCLAIMER: I’m pretty good at tinkering with my saxophone. You might suck at it. If you botch a repair, it’s not my fault, okay?

I bought a Lawton 7 Star mouthpiece for tenor saxophone a few months ago on eBay. It’s a special model in bronze with a long window, low baffle, and larger throat. I’ve been playing one of those lost wax replica brass Florida Links with excellent results. However, I wanted to find something with a little more power because I was really pushing the Link to its limits on rock gigs. I can’t stand playing on anything without a huge chamber and low baffle, though, so that rules out most of the typical power designs. This piece intrigued me because of it’s large chamber, accentuated by the long window, and I’ve always loved bronze as a mouthpiece material.

I played the Lawton for a while as is and tried it out at some sessions. It had some playability issues and seemed a bit open for a 7 Star. Eventually, I had Norbert Stachel, who’s been working on my mouthpieces for several years now, work his refacing magic. It turned out the piece had a tip opening of .130″ or so and needed a lot of work.

Lawton Special in Bronze with Long Window for Tenor
Refaced by Norbert Stachel

I got the piece back a couple weeks ago. Norbert shorted it slightly to reveal a little more baffle and closed it to a tip opening of .117″, which is still a lot bigger than the .105″ to .112″ range my mouthpieces for the last ten years have been. I had to play slightly thinner reeds to get the response I wanted.

Last weekend, I used the Lawton on my Duke Baxter gig under conditions of a large outdoor tent with a loud band with PA and no monitors. I was extremely happy with the way the mouthpiece held up to all the air I put through it. There’s enough back pressure to produce a satisfying resistance when the reed breaks in and would otherwise start to feel thin. I am still getting used to the intonation (which is better than the Link, but different enough to require adjustment) and the way it takes the airstream at various volumes.

Sonically, it’s not a rock or jazz fusion kind of sound. It enables a fat, rich “Link on steroids” sound that is pretty much the sound that I shoot for. I think this may be my all around jazz piece, too. I’ll have to see how I settle into it over the next six months. The large tip opening still feels a bit odd, but it doesn’t feel like it takes more air, just throws my timing off very subtly. And it forces me to really keep my airstream solid. If I wimp out, so does my tone, but if I mind my technique, it sounds amazing!