2018: A Year of Travels, from Las Vegas to New York

2018 at Syos: CES in Las Vegas, our first NAMM, saxophone festivals across Europe, unforgettable encounters with Knoel Scott, Moon Hooch and Tivon Pennicott, and the launch of our Signature mouthpiece line.

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2018 was a very full year, packed with travel. Continuing our look back at ten years of Syos, here's where the road took us.

CES in Las Vegas

Syos was invited to present its mouthpieces at CES in Las Vegas. It was quite an experience, and it's where I met Eddie Rich, with whom we still work today.

Syos presenting 3D printed saxophone mouthpieces at CES 2018 in Las Vegas — Presenting Syos at CES 2018 in Las Vegas.

Trade shows and our first NAMM

We then went on to present our mouthpieces at all sorts of trade shows. It was also the year of our first NAMM, where we met Eric Croissant.

A London saxophone festival — and Knoel Scott

Next came a saxophone festival in London. That's where we had a rather surprising encounter with Knoel Scott, of the Sun Ra Arkestra. He turned up just as we were packing up our stand — every mouthpiece was already wrapped away. He explained that he plays a Meyer mouthpiece but was looking for more roundness while keeping the projection, along with a few other details I no longer remember exactly.

From that description, I dug through my boxes and pulled out a light-blue alto mouthpiece that seemed to match his request perfectly. He took one look at it and told me he wasn't going to play a blue plastic mouthpiece, zipped up his case and walked off. I ran after him, insisting the mouthpiece would win him over and that it would be a shame not to try it while he was there. He thought about it for a few seconds and said okay. He put it in his mouth, played a single note — and his eyes lit up. He didn't stop playing for several minutes!

You can see it for yourself:

Knoel Scott trying the light-blue alto mouthpiece for the first time.

The rest is history: Knoel still plays that exact mouthpiece today — I didn't even need to make any changes to the original design.

Les Ardentes and Moon Hooch

We then headed to the Ardentes festival in Liège, Belgium, and that's where I first met Michael Wilbur and Wenzl McGowen of Moon Hooch!

Syos with Michael Wilbur and Wenzl McGowen of Moon Hooch at Les Ardentes 2018 — With Michael Wilbur and Wenzl McGowen (Moon Hooch) at Les Ardentes.

The Zagreb saxophone congress (and a tense flight home)

A few days later, we moved straight on to the World Saxophone Congress in Zagreb. As it happened, our flight home took off right in the middle of the World Cup final — France against… Croatia! The mood on board was a little tense ;)

Syos at the World Saxophone Congress in Zagreb 2018 — At the World Saxophone Congress in Zagreb.

New York, and the launch of our Signature line

I finally wrapped up this round-the-world tour with a stop in New York, where I met, among others, Tivon Pennicott and Chad LB. It was right after this trip that we launched our flagship line of Signature mouthpieces!

The very first time I met Tivon Pennicott.