Today, I am reviewing another mouthpiece made by Morgan Fry. Morgan Fry is a great mouthpiece maker and refacer in England. I have reviewed some of his mouthpieces in the past and had him do some refacing work for me. I have always been impressed with his work and craftsmanship. If you do a search for Morgan Fry in the “search” bar on the top right of the site you can find some of his other mouthpieces I have reviewed. The mouthpiece I am reviewing today is the ebonite 7* tenor saxophone model.
Morgan Fry Ebonite Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
The outside of the Morgan Fry Ebonite mouthpiece is very cool looking. It has a black and gold marble look to it with a beautiful silver band around the shank. MF is engraved in white on the top of the mouthpiece and 7* is stenciled in on the bottom of the table.
The rails of the mouthpiece look to be very even and the tip rail is symmetric and perfect looking to the eye. The baffle is what I would call a medium high baffle (between a medium and high baffle). It has scooped side walls that scoop out to a medium large sized chamber. The chamber looks larger in size than an Otto Link Slant Signature chamber and a new Early Babbitt Otto Link chamber as I compare them side by side. The floor of the chamber looks lower to me than those Otto Links. As the baffle slopes down into the chamber it is not straight but has more of a slightly scooped shape as you can see in the pictures below.
Morgan Fry Ebonite Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
The Morgan Fry Ebonite tenor mouthpiece was very easy to play and was extremely reed friendly. I used a Rico Select Jazz 3 medium unfiled reed with a Vandoren Optimum ligature on the clip below.
Morgan Fry Ebonite Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
I found this tenor mouthpiece to have a tone that leaned slightly to the brighter side of things and was nice and focused. The medium high baffle gave it some nice power and cut when I pushed it. I found that the response of this mouthpiece was immediate and allowed me to really express myself fully. The low end had a thick sound full of character and the high end was clear and full. The intonation was very good also. With a softer and brighter reed like a Rigotti Gold 3 light or even 3 medium the tone was a bit brighter. I preferred the Rico reeds for this clip.
Morgan Fry Ebonite Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
The Morgan Fry Ebonite Tenor Mouthpiece was great to play. If you like the sound of the clip below and the mouthpiece catches your interest then give it a try. You can contact Morgan Fry on his website at morganfrymouthpieces.com. Tell him Steve sent you………….
Let me know what you think in the comments below. Thanks, Steve
Morgan Fry Ebonite Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece
Hi Steve,
so I see some more of Morgan’s work arrived on Your desk :-)… While playing and loving the Morgan Fry HR alto since many month I switched to that on tenor now too and is the very best option I found ’til today concerning variability – it never let me down if it was diner jazz or any very loud funk gig. And I like it better than the Robusto (where I get some unwanted bite), while the Morgan Fry HR stays always balanced. How would You compare it to the Navarro Bob Mintzer?
Walter
Walter,
The Morgan Fry HR was very nice. I agree it seemed like it is perfectly placed in between dark and bright so it can handle shades of both worlds. The Navarro Bob Mintzer piece had more resistance for me that I really liked. I’m a little strange in that I seem to like more resistance and softer reeds. I like it when a softer reed blows like a harder reed. The Mintzer piece was a bit like that and I really liked it. I felt the Morgan Fry piece was more free blowing I think. I think both had a similar sound but I think I could get louder on the Minter piece as I remember…………..
Please, I’m very interested How many cost this mouthpiece, i’m from brazilian. I need mor iformation theses mouthpiece for aquisition.
by
José Claudio
Jose, I don’t sell the mouthpieces but just review them. For more information contact Morgan Fry through his website. There is a link at the bottom of this review. Thanks, Steve
Hi Steve,
I know this review is from a while back, but I was curious if you had any experience with any of Morgan’s metal mouthpieces such as the Vintage? Thanks!
Sheridan, I don’t believe I have played a metal one of his called the Vintage. I think the only one I tried was the Morgan Fry Rhodium large chamber mouthpiece which I did a review of. Steve