Important to know ---- How old are you? What type of jazz bands? How long have you been playing? Current brand of mouthpiece, and what brand of horn are you playing? Your future goals in sax performance? As far as the Runyan's are concerned, they are a fairly consistant quality mouthpiece. Art Pepper played on a standard (no spoiler) custom model for some time, until he switched to Meyer. Besides Art Pepper, I really know of no other major player who used or endorsed Runyan. I have found that most Runyan's lack a solid core to their sound. This will effect your projection, and give you a rather weak lead-sound, overall. It may sound good and loud to you, where you are playing, but the sound will get lost past the bandstand. Most of the major players, such as Phil Woods, Richie Cole, Greg Abate, all play Meyer mouthpieces. It is in the nature of the physical attributes of the Meyer design to allow you to project your own personal sound, with greater control than most mouthpieces out there. As I've mentioned in other posts, sometimes the mass-production of some of these mouthpieces caused certain anomalies in quality to occur, but overall, they are quite consistant, and fine playing mouthpieces. They are also quite affordable. And as I've mentioned before, as well, if you wish the perfect Meyer, purchase a Morgan. They are about $30 or so more than a Meyer, but well worth the expense. I could suggest certain facings for you to try, if I knew more about you, answering my questions above. ii-V-I kenny j