Gents,

 

I need help identifying a vintage alto mouthpiece I recently
acquired.  The piece is unmarked but for
the number 10 stamped on its side.  It is
a silver plated brass mouthpiece with a fluted design reminiscent of the 1940s
Selmer metal master as well as some work from Lelandais.  The biteplate is half circular in shape and
marbled in tones of maroon. 
Workmanship on the baffle, scoped sidewalls and the large chamber (Otto
Link style) is simply exquisite.  The
complex shape was machined to a high polish and seems perfectly
symmetrical.  No brazing lines can be
seen suggesting this was not made using a two-piece casting.  Shank inner diameter at 0.6” / 15.3 mm is
rather small.  The overall length of the
piece at 3.15” /80mm makes it shorter than a short shank soloist.

 

The opening is more typical of pre-WWII designs; a measly
0.058” tip opening couple to a very long 24mm/48mm*2 facing.  I am only aware of Rascher still making
similar facings today.  

 

With a strong reed (V12 #4) the tone is both dark (towards
fundamentals, not much high partials) and fairly focused, low notes speak
effortlessly, probably due to the long facing. 
Intonation using my SBA is near perfect with none of the long tube VS
short tube issues I generally face when playing on more modern post mid-fifties
mouthpieces.  By the way my reference for
intonation on the SBA is a 1940s Airflow and this plays even more in tune
–which could be due to the high partials (always sharp) being suppressed.  On the low side this is not a lead alto piece or a
piece that plays loud enough to fill a large acoustic venue.  Altissimo also cuts off early, although I
have not optimized my choice of reed for this facing yet…

 

It is a very good piece for legit work requiring perfect
intonation like transcriptions of Bach suites and partitas.

 

Any information on its origin and history would be much appreciated.

 

Best regards,

 

Marco

 

PS

Pictures attached

 		 	   		  

I think it might be a Lelandais. They came with the SML saxes among others. 

Peter,
Thank you for your insights.  As this might be a rather uncommon model, I will widen my search and post on other forums like SOTW.
Cheers,
Marco

To: MouthpieceWork@yahoogroups.com
From: MouthpieceWork@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 2015 03:22:29 +0000
Subject: [MouthpieceWork] Re: FW: Help identifying a vintage brass alto mouthpiece














 

 



  


    
      
      
      
I think it might be a Lelandais. They came with the SML saxes among others.