Today, I am reviewing a new tenor saxophone mouthpiece made by Arnold Montgomery of AM Mouthpieces. It is “The Aras” model and has an 8 tip opening. I hadn’t heard of Arnold Montgomery before but he emailed me asking if I would be willing to review his “The Aras” mouthpiece. He hinted that there was something unique about it that he was getting “patented” so I was very interested to see what this unique feature would be…………
AM Mouthpieces “The Aras” Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
Here is the description of “The Aras” from the AM Mouthpieces Website:
The Aras ( or eagle) is the result of many years of acoustic research and development. The Aras is a 100% handmade saxophone mouthpiece. The Aras features a medium high baffle with a slight rollover that leads into a medium large bullet chamber for a tone that produces what I’ve classified as a “Warm Crunch.” The Aras has a semi-bright tone with great control, amazing projection and an unrivaled balance of tonal color. Due to our Patent Pending utility The “Resonance Chamber,” The Aras provides Great lows, a thick mid range and altissimo that is extremely easy to produce while still maintaining a fat rich core. The “Resonance Chamber” Allows the reed to vibrate on a four rail system as opposed to your standard two that are found on all other mouthpieces. This greatly increases the harmonics and lower frequencies of the horn. The Aras has a thicker, heavier body than standard metal mouthpieces. This improves projection, sustainability, and durability. The overall feel of the mouthpiece provides a more efficient bite similar to a hard rubber mouthpiece allowing for better ergonomics and a more comfortable feel thereby greatly improving ease of playability.
AM Mouthpieces “The Aras” Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
You’ve already probably noticed what is unique about the Aras mouthpiece pictured above. It has a big opening in the middle of the table! Although I have seen and played mouthpieces with extended windows before, I have never seen one with this type of design before.
When I took the mouthpiece out of it’s packaging, the first thing I noticed was that the Aras had a hefty weight to it. It felt heavier and more substantial than many other metal mouthpieces I have reviewed through out the years. As you look at the window of the table below you can see how thick the metal of the table is.
The Aras has a pretty high scooped baffle in it that is reminiscent of some Berg Larsen baffles I have seen. The side rails look even but flare out a bit as they approach the tip rail. When you put a reed on the Aras the side rails near the tip flare out past the sides of the reed. This is fine though because the rails are wide enough that the reed still lands on the side rails and tip when playing. The sidewalls are straight.
AM Mouthpieces “The Aras” Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
My first thought as I looked at the small opening to the chamber of the Aras was that this was going to be an incredibly bright sounding mouthpiece. The chamber is usually the area of the mouthpiece right after the baffle and before the bore (which slides on the cork). What is deceptive about the Aras, is that although the opening to the chamber is much smaller than a typical Otto Link type chamber opening, the bore looks to be a similar size as an Otto Link. Now if you take into account the square opening in the table that is further increasing the chambers size, you end up with an even bigger chamber. I’m actually very curious as to what the actual size of this chamber comes out to be if measured and compared to other mouthpieces??
AM Mouthpieces “The Aras” Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
I was worried at first that the Aras would have trouble sealing and getting suction with reeds because of the added window on the table. I did have some trouble with some old reeds I tried to use at first but that is pretty common as those reeds already molded and warped to fit another mouthpiece table in the past. I tried some new reeds on the Aras and they worked great though. They got a seal when applying the suction test and held a seal the whole time I was playing on that reed. That’s a good sign that Arnold Montgomery knows what he is doing………
In general, on this mouthpiece my Rigotti Gold 2 1/2’s felt to soft and free blowing. I felt most comfortable with Rigotti Gold 3 Light, 3 Medium or with Rico Select Jazz 3 Soft Unfiled reeds.
One thing that I have to mention for the review is that the Aras was particularly difficult to match a ligature to. I have a box with maybe 30-40 ligatures in it and found than the diameter of the Aras is big enough that Otto Link size ligatures will not fit on it but bigger ligatures for alto were too big for the Aras. I did find a few in my box that fit well though. This Rovner below fit well but I added a Vandoren pressure plate to it years ago when experimenting and it fit even better with the plate. I also found that the Claude Lakey Compass ligature,a Rovner Eddie Daniels and a Saxxas Ligature for metal tenor mouthpieces fit the Aras well. The last 3 tended to move when adjusting the mouthpiece so I went with my homemade modified Rovner.
AM Mouthpieces “The Aras” Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
The tone of the Aras was bright but very fat sounding to my ears. Not thin at all in my opinion. From the first note of the clip the first word that comes to mind is “FAT”. The tone was easy to bend and manipulate and I found the piece to be expressive. I found that the mouthpiece played more “sweetly” with a fatter lower lip embouchure. I think that fatter cushion on the reed makes the brightness less edgy. If you want more edge you can just make your lower lip a bit flatter and you have more edge. At 1:10 in the recording I lessen my air and fatten my lip a tad and the tone mellows out nicely……..
The mouthpiece was indeed very freeblowing in my opinion. I played it for about an hour before recording the sound clip. Although I felt pretty comfortable on the Aras, the resistance is very different than playing many of the Otto Links that I have been playing. I found that I didn’t need to use as much air to push the piece into overdrive and I had to get use to the lesser resistance to shape the sound. I found that although I was blowing with say a 6 air stream, the sound was at 10 already. If I pushed harder it would then go to 12…….. I will say that as I played it I did get used to this different resistance pretty quickly though. (I wouldn’t suggest playing this mouthpiece against a wall without ear protection for too long though……….)
I do think “the Aras” would be a great R&B and loud pop band mouthpiece. Although it leans heavily to the brighter side of life, the fattness of the tone balances out the brights nicely. I do think you could get a nice Brecker like tone out of the Aras for those of you seeking a Brecker type sound. This mouthpiece would cut through the mix of a live situation very well I think.
If you like the sound of the clip below and the mouthpiece catches your interest then please contact Arnold Montgomery and give it a try. You can contact Mr. Montgomery at his website at AMmouthpieces.com. Tell him Steve sent you………….
Let me know what you think in the comments below. Thanks, Steve
AM Mouthpieces “The Aras” Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
