Frank on the Sax

I've had this as my main mouthpeice for about 3 weeks now. Initailly when I bought it the intonation was slightly flat but getting more and more used to it it has made playing in my big band eaiser since it can cut through fairly easy but you also do have to pair it with the right reed otherwise you will sqeak almost every note from here till Sunday, I really didn't need a new mouthpeice but I found myself having to fight over my big band when doing a solo in rehearsals it makes eaiser. One gripe that I do have is that trying to find the right reed is a VERY tedious process as well as trying to find the right ligature, I found that I don't really like D'Addario's reeds with this and found myself leaning more towards my Boston Sax Shop Black/Silver label reeds casue they keep it more consistant- I also ended up pairing this up with a BSS Superlative Brass Liguature and I like how it frees up the sound and mellows it out by darkening it cause you will be bright and have a plasticky sound when you cross that treshold.

I tried about 4 horns before I ended up settling for my Custom Z, I had already came from a Yamaha 23, so I already had that feel from a Yamaha- I tried a Selmer Mark VI, System 76, Serie III, and my 82Z reason why I went for those horns is because they were broadcasted as the "jazz" horns and at the time was consistantly playing jazz so my band director (at the time this over ten years now) had led me to try those horns and while yes the Mark VI is nice but what I've noticed that if you dont get the "RIGHT" one you'll never be happy with one, the System 76 is nice yes, but wasn't what I was looking for because at the time they felt like more of a novelty thing because it's like they're just chasing what the Mark VI is which now is what the standard is now (from what I've understood) the Serie III- what can I say? It's a good horn-yes but honestly LIKE the Mark VI they're over hyped and the pricing is astronomical because every one wants THAT horn. Which is why I settled for my 82Z it checked all the boxes for what I was looking for and honestly I feel like you CAN compare this apples to apples with a Mark VI because of how Yamaha has gotten the action on them, but as far as why I went for an Unlacuqred horn? I gotta be honest it was the only one that the shop I went to had and honestly did I make a bad choice by just choosing that horn and not try different versions? No. Since then I have played on other versions and from what I can say is that I made the right choice and I make it 100x over again because I fell in love with it from the second I played a note on it to now where I still smile when I play it. Hope this helps for finding the right horn!