‘Ok, you were right and I love it !’ I have been very tempted to write only this as a feedback to you about the Missing Link you made for me. The alternative was to write 8 pages of comments describing everything I found about it (and I only had it for 2 weeks !). So, to keep things short, you promised simplicity, elegance, and that I would love to play the mouthpiece… Done, done (so much so !), and done. And that is truly impressive ! Now, I’d still like to let you know a little bit about my ‘encounter’ with your Missing Link… For the anecdote, curiously, this wasn’t love at first glance. It actually started as a huge misunderstanding, mainly because I had a few things to ‘unlearn’ from my previous mouthpieces… so at the beginning I had in mind ‘ok, it’s just another mouthpiece to which I have to adapt…’ Wrong ! So much so !
After one week of playing only with the ML, and trying back my old Yanagisawa (and the few others I have), I understood how easy the ML really is, and the many things it has to offer. There isn’t even a comparison… Basically it is ‘more of everything’. The most important things that struck me have been:
1) the tip opening is… well I wouldn’t say ‘completely irrelevant’ yet, but it is really only one parameter amongst many (you got me worried for a minute when I read it was a 60 and the Marca reed was a 3…),
2) the richness/fullness and evenness of sound across the whole range, even without working on it, is just incredible,
3) it is just ridiculous how reed friendly it is… I have tried everything I got on it, and instead of giving me hard times, it just offered me different kinds of starting sound from which to elaborate.
4) articulation is indeed way easier… And I am still finding new things every day… so I can say with confidence that your ML will be a very long lasting friend.
All right, that is, again, a very long e-mail… so let me conclude by saying again this is a complete success.
I do love your Missing Link !
Thank you for that,