On tenor, Greg has been using 2 Selmer Mk 6s for most of
his career until very recently when he switched to a
P.Mauriat. He still uses a Mk 6 alto, and for soprano and
baritone uses Yanagisawa*.
His mouthpieces are made by Edward Pillinger of London.
The tenor is a New York model - about 7*, the soprano is a
Soloist model - also around 7*. Both of these are in ebonite.
The baritone piece is a custom built one in a ebonite/brass
hybrid material, also around 7. The alto piece is a Meyer 8.
For microphones he uses an AKG Solid Tube mic for
recording, and live tends to use a clip-on AKG C419.
*Greg's Yanagisawa instruments are supplied by Mr. Tan of Music
Prelude
whole playing career, it is quite a major shift.
I've never really been interested in new saxophones. They rarely sound as good
as the vintage ones and they usually don't feel that good either.
I happened to be at the International Saxophone Conference in Thailand last year
where Mr Alex Hsieh of P.Mauriat had a stand displaying their range of
instruments. A lot of the local players were playing these horns and there was a lot
of talk about them. I was immediately impressed by the tone and feel. They had
come up with a big sound - rather like an old balanced action - but with much better
intonation and a consistency of tone from the bottom to the top.
I've come to the conclusion that there's a point at which improvements in
technology become more valid than whatever considerations of former hand
production methods and other nostalgia. No I'm not selling my Mk6s but as
wonderful as they are, they have problems and we just adapt our technique to
compensate. Now I don't need to.
The one I'm actually playing I picked up from them in September 2005. It's a
PMST 71 model, with a great fat tone that turns heads anywhere I play it. It really is
consistently the same tone over the whole range of the instrument though it doesn't
quite have the Mk6's sweetness at the top end. I particularly like the bottom end of
it. It has a lot of agility down there that I'd never had before, and I find myself playing
phrases down there that weren't previously available to me.
I do have to get some work done on it to improve the top end though. I've been
talking to them about this and they are currently developing a new neck that should
make quite a difference.
Jazz neck-pipe
