PPT Saxophone Mouthpieces

All profits from the sale of PPTs is donated to charity

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The Concept

Like many saxophone players I have been on a constant search for the ideal saxophone sound. The main factor involved is the player rather than the saxophone, however the mouthpiece plays the next important role. There seem to be two schools of thought on this: those who recommend you get one decent mouthpiece and stick to it for life, and those who try lots of different mouthpieces, or experiment by physically changing a mouthpiece. There are all sorts of things you can do in this area: open or close the tip opening (the distance between tip and reed) change the facing curve or adjust the baffle by removing or adding material. For quite a long time I stuck with an Otto Link STM 7* on tenor, but although I was quite happy with the sound for some styles, I found it not quite versatile enough for my work as a session musician, so I started to look around and try different mouthpieces, including Lawton, Guy Hawkins, Wolf Tayne, Berg Larsen, vandoren and Dave Guardala, all of which had something about them I liked, but none of which did everything I wanted. Was that too much to ask?.

I was looking for a mouthpiece that could give me a different, more characterful sound on tenor saxophone, so I started to experiment with altering mouthpieces. I liked a Vandoren Jumbo Java but found the baffle too severe giving too much of a constant edge to the sound, likewise I have always liked some of the Berg Larsens but found them a bit inconsistent. Most of my early attempts at working on a mouthpiece were pretty awful, as this is something best left to the mouthpiece experts. However I sent one of my efforts off to top UK mouthpiece manufacturer and refacer Edward Pillinger, who developed this into something rather special.

PPT Artists/Endorsers

Taz Morra (Jazz Jamaica) is now playing a PPT baritone mouthpiece

Roger Lewis of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band: PPT Metal 8*

Why no Alto PPT?

There are currently no plans for an alto mouthpiece. The soprano, tenor and baritone mouthpieces were developed purely for myself, not as a commercial venture, because I could not find any existing production mouthpieces that would perform the way I wanted. I could find great sounding mouthpieces but they were not versatile enough for the music I was commissioned to produce so I set about creating something. As I can find plenty of good alto mouthpieces that I like, including Selmer Soloist, RPC, Jody Jazz, Brancher and many others, it has not been a priority for me to "reinvent the wheel", especially as PPT mouthpieces are completely non profit making, I would find it difficult to find the time. One day...