Additional information
| Weight | .3 lbs |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 7 × 2 × 2 in |
| Tip Opening | 5, 6, 7*, 8 |
| Shank | Long Shank (Conn, Selmer, Keilwerth, Yanagisawa, Buescher), Short Shank (Yamaha) |
GS Hollywood Baritone Saxophone Mouthpiece – Best Ever!
$ 295
The GS HOLLYWOOD BARITONE mouthpiece is a copy of my best Gale Hollywood vintage baritone mouthpiece like Gerry Mulligan played, and it is just fantastic. It works equally well in jazz, pit orchestra, and concert band settings, with a warm, beautiful tone, and it tunes REALLY well on both vintage and modern baritones. If you’re wanting to improve your baritone tone, the GS Hollywood can make an instant, dramatic difference in your tone. It really fills out the sound, giving you a warm, complex, saturated, interesting bartione tone that remains even throughout the scale and that blends really nicely into a saxophone section. If you push it, it will project and bark for taking a solo or even for playing funk, but it’s most at home making the baritone sound how it intrinsically should sound – fat, full, warm, and lush. I don’t think there has ever been a better all-around baritone mouthpiece available for anything like this price. The original Gale Hollywood pieces like Gerry Mulligan played are extremely expensive. The last few I saw sell went for $2500+, and I had to collect something like ten of them to find this one that stood out from the crowd as by far the best. So you’re getting an extremely precise copy of that best-ever Gale Hollywood. I think you’ll love it!
If you’re a player and not sure which tip to get, heres a guide:
5 tip: Concern Band, Pit Orchestra, Blending if you want something mellow, easy to play, and blending. It’s wonderful for pit orchestra, concert band, or mainstream jazz (Gerry Mulligan played a Gale Hollywood 5 exactly like the one we copied.)
6 tip: All-Purpose Mouthpiece Get the 6 if you want it to take a little more air and project extra for solo playing.The 6 is probably the most all-purpose tip opening, and the .100″ tip opening is comfortable for almost anyone.
7* tip: Classic Wide Open Feel if you want to honk or project over a band, or for funk, rock, or loud jazz settings. I play all three tip openings, and love them all. The 7* has the facing from an original facing Gale Hollywood 7* I was lucky enough to find a few years ago.
8 tip: Even more power Available at .120″ that also plays beautifully! The 7* and * ti[s are also available in XL extended shank for The Martin Baritone which seems to need that.
If you’re a band director or band parent looking for the best possible baritone mouthpiece to recommend to your kids to help them grow as players, and that will still blend really nicely into a concert band, I’d say go for the original 5 tip opening. It’s wonderful, and it takes air really well without being brash or unpleasant. I’ve sent some of these to band students already, and the transformation in their tone is dramatic and amazing. I think you’ll feel really good about how the saxophone section sounds with the GS Hollywood contributing to the low end.
Ligatures that fit GS Hollywood / Gale Hollywood mouthpieces include:
- Echomaster Baritone Ligature (Large)
- Vandoren M/O baritone LC59AP
- Vandoren Optimum ligature and cap for bari LC09P
- Rico H ligature baritone large size HBS2G
- Rovner platinum P3-R
John Liles –
I can’t remember when a mouthpiece has bowled me over the way this one did. The GS Hollywood is fantastic in every way — the tone is warm and full, it’s free-blowing and intonation is great. I’m accustomed to playing high-baffle pieces, so I was pleasantly surprised at how this piece with less baffle and a bigger chamber doesn’t require more air; I’m not huffing and puffing on long passages. I just never get tired of playing it.
I haven’t played enough mouthpieces in my life to know if this really is the “best ever,” but it’s probably the best I’ve ever had the pleasure to own. It’s now my go-to mouthpiece for bari. Get one, you’ll be glad you did!
Walter Ruckdeschel (verified owner) –
After playing and trying so many baritone mouthpieces on the search for the imaginary holy grail I have to say: this one really stands out of the crowd of many highly regarded and very good baritone mouthpieces.
The Gale Hollywood design is nothing about that “more baffle” strategy to “cut through” and here is absolutely nothing contemporary except the 3D-print and the precision of manufacturing. I didn’t play any original vintage Gales, but I think they will have some serious variations as it is with so many vintage mouthpieces. The GS Hollywood reproduction is manufactured with superb perfection (and I imagine without any relevant series variation) and that annoying 3d-printing plastic aspect isn’t here. Instead it is a serious piece of a master craftsman’s work.
I was happy to get a custom 0.119 version of the GS Hollywood. It is highly responsive, can play amazingly sweet as a baritone ever could do, has pixydust-like harmonics (quite some of them) and is with that by no means dull, while it is absolutely no bright mouthpiece. If there is anybody out there in search for a mouthpiece to play ballads on baritone, look here. If pushed seriously, it will give an amazing amount of projection without cutting sharpness, but with a wide midrange-focus. It is one of the mouthpieces, where there is quite some room for the player to shape his sound, and this might be one of the very aspects of any saxophone-mouthpiece. A great and very welcome addition to many baritone players mouthpiece options!
Ben (verified owner) –
One word. TONE! The tone of this mouthpiece is incredible. The response is immaculate from the quietest dynamic to the absolute loudest I can possibly play and it just takes the air. It can work in any commercial setting. It’s so good for ballads, funk, quartet/quintet, and big band playing. Highly, HIGHLY recommend!
Miguel (verified owner) –
Excellent mouthpiece, especially for “jazz.” I have a 7* with the long shank to tune better on a Conn 12M. The tone is great – full of warmth and richness. The description says “it’s most at home making the baritone sound how it intrinsically should sound – fat, full, warm, and lush.” That has been my experience.