Thanks for the great info Peter090! I wish there were a sax oriented store nearby that I could play a bunch of different pieces before buying one. I hate to do the try n buy over the internet, but as sax players I guess we are limited to our resources. I swear if I had the money I would start up a shop with a bunch of new model horns and a ton of mouthpieces for people to come in and try out. I would have a line a mile long of sax players! In Atlanta, there was a great store like that. I must have played a dozen different mp's and half a dozen horns before going with the yamaha 875. The gold plated mark VI at $10,000 played like a dream, but was a little out of my price range hehe

haha, oh yeah! i love trying equipment, but yeah, some can be a little pricey(i tried some at tenor madness) I'd say you should try out some rubber pieces too. i love both my berg90/1M(tenor) and my meyer SMS(alto) ut quite enjoyed this one sugal super gonz i played.

Everybody knows that you CAN try a mouthpiece when you order it, right? If you don't like it, return it. This is possible for $50 Meyers and $400 Sugals.

The real problem is sometimes it takes a while to find out how a mouthpiece plays. (not to mention getting a reed matched to the moutpiece) You can go a long way towards getting your sound on even a student piece. It is a LOT easier to pick your ultimate gear when you know what your ultimate goal is. Take every opportunity to try new gear but realize that you should be able to get pretty close to the sound you want on just about anything you pick up.

now THAT would be worth my high dollar- ;)