I’ve had a 40 year career as a physics and chemistry teacher, and a semi-professional musician. I have played with many regional big bands and pit orchestras. A common conversation is always about the search for the elusive “holy grail”of mouthpieces. Whether it be a rare vintage or an incredibly expensive contemporary, everyone seems to be looking for “the piece” that provides them their nirvana of sound with the least investment in the craft. Depending upon the individuals investment of time and thought, I find most performers, really do not understand the significance of the construction of the mouthpiece (I.e. chamber size, baffle, design, material, etc.) thereby extending the search to years of trial-and -error attempts to reach some insecure feeling of satisfaction. “Maybe that next one will be even better! “ This brings us the apparent mission of SYOS; educating musicians on what design factors actually contribute to the quality of sound production while offering a product selection that won’t require you to hock your vintage horn collection! My first attempt of trying a SYOS mouthpiece was the selection of the Classic baritone spark. I’ve used it on a few jobs and I must say that I am pretty impressed with it’s balance through all registers and it’s ease of playing. Thus far, I will consider it my “go to” mouthpiece for my big band performances. I have now decided to try out a Classic tenor spark, and a alto medium dark. Maybe I will never stop my quest for the grail, but I can appreciate SYOS for making the quest more knowledgeable, colorful and affordable!

This mouthpiece is really easy to play. I'm still adjusting to it's simplicity compared with the Otto Link. It's also really light which is handy with my huge Cannonball B5 Raven Ice. I'm gonna see how a tenor mouth piece does with my very odd Dorfler & Jerker 1957 next with a different coring. I wish I had access to a few more styles (bright v dark) to compare with but it's hard to afford that yet. Working on it!

au début je pensais ne pas réussir à m'habituer. je faisais fausses notes sur fausses notes. JE me suis rendu compte que le problème ne venait pas du bec mais de l'instrument. après une révision, j'apprécie chaque moment , chaque morceau joué avec ce bec . j'ai l'impression de redécouvrir l'instrument.

Le spark’envoie du lourd. Il faut les bonnes anches. Je m’explique. Les ricoh sonnent mieux avec que les vvandoren java. Est ce la coupe US ou française qui veut ça. Je ne sais pas. Mais en tout cas dans un brass band, je prends ma place. Attention à ne pas perdre ses fondamentaux en embouchure car il es tellement facile de tout jouer avec ce bec. Merci syos.

This is a really good mouthpiece! The sound of it is just so beefy and just a really good tone to it. It also adds some pop to the saxophone!