This is a true story
And hopefully you can forgive me if a little marketing creeps in, I’m only human.
Many years ago I was working as a session musician. Like many musicians I had been through various baritones including York, Selmer Modele 22, Martin Handcraft and a Selmer MK VI. My mouthpiece was a (now very sought after) Lawton 7.
HoweverI had always hankered after a Conn 12M since a colleague at Music College had one and sounded fantastic. So when I found a 12M I jumped at it. It was so much better than my MKVI, which I sold for a good price. However after a while and a lot of recording I realised I was having intonation problems so decided to sell it on and look for another Selmer.
These were the days before eBay, so it was advertised in Exchange & Mart, and a lady made a very good offer and arranged to turn up with her daughter (for whom it was a present) and pay for it. As neither of them played she asked me to demonstrate it so I opened the “glove compartment” in the case and saw the two old mouthpieces that I think came with it when I bought it. I picked one up and played a couple of scales and a tune or two. I couldn’t believe suddenly the horn was as in tune as I could ever want. It also sounded better than ever – a big fat rich baritone voice.
I almost decided to not sell it, but – a deal is a deal – and I reluctantly handed it over, although I did ask her if she minded if I kept one of the mouthpieces, the one I had used for the demo, and she had no problem with that. It was an old Otto Link 5* which I had noticed when I bought the horn but never bothered playing before. I knew very little about Otto Links.
Next day I popped it round to mouthpiece expert and refacer Bill Wrathall as I wanted it refaced to a 7. He refused point blank saying “do you know what this is?”
“It’s an old Otto Link,” I said.
“No,” he replied “it’s not just an Otto Link, it’s an original Slant Signature – highly valued and the best mouthpiece ever made. I won’t touch it – that would be sacrilege. But luckily I do have a customer who has an original Otto Link Slant 7 who wants a smaller tip and I refused to do that on as well. I’ll put you in touch to do a swap.” So I swapped with his other customer and we were both extremely happy. For me, the 7 was even better than the 5* and again – absolutely bang on in tune.
So I sold the Lawton and from then on was very happy – I’d found my Holy Grail of mouthpieces.
Years Later
When I designed the PPT range of mouthpieces with Ed Pillinger we decided that rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, we could just use this as the template and the PPT baritone mouthpieces were born. Do I still use it? No because I use the PPT which I find is identical. Will I sell it? Hmmm, probably not while I’m alive
The PPT version was tested for the Intonation Station app and I heard will be featured in a future upgrade. Here are the comments I received from the app developer, Paul:
A few weeks back, Rhys came over with a clutch of mouthpieces, and we had an enjoyable evening performing some intonation tests on our 12Ms with my app.
I’m sure it won’t surprise you to learn that I was completely blown away with the PPT mouthpieces. Fantastic modern volume and tone while still preserving that unique 12M resonance. The intonation was absolutely spot-on: better than any other mouthpieces we tried, for me at least.
Unfortunately, I’ve made too many mods to my Conn since the original study to include the PPT there (though I will mention it). So my plan is to do a new study in which it will appear prominently.
