Paul Richards Soprano Legend

                       

In conjunction with Paul Richards, recent winner of the Best Soprano Player Award at the British Open, Mercer and Barker are delighted to introduce the latest addition to its Soprano Cornet Mouthpiece Range the MB1-PR "Sonic".

|Specification:

Cup 16.25mm (Medium) Throat 3.90mm and Rim 5.78mm

Since its launch the MB-PR1 has been incredibly popular. Developed and used by Paul, its combination of a sizeable cup with the comfortable signature M&B rim provides a mouthpiece that helps the player deliver a beautiful shimmering true soprano sound, with great range and duration.

However in working with Paul, the rigours of many more demanding music and testpieces pushes soprano players to reach ever higher and higher notes with clarity and great intonation.

In addition to his stock MB-PR1 mouthpiece, Paul has always used a shallower, smaller bored mouthpiece in the few passages where particularly high notes were needed.

“I never want to compromise my overall sound in playing general passages simply to hit the few high notes, so occasionally I have developed my technique to swap in a shallower piece for the few bars of high notes where needed.

“The  problem I have had is finding a mouthpiece that felt the same on my embouchure, and also provided the same tuning position. In the past I could get something close, but have never really been fully happy with the substitute pieces I’ve used”

Paul therefore asked M&B to produce a mouthpiece with the same rim and shank, but with a shallower cup and smaller bore.

After development, we are pleased to introduce the new MB - PR Sonic range. Designed to be used in partnership with the MB PR1 (or indeed with our other soprano pieces), this brand new range will provide more options for players to swap in a piece and to hit the high notes, whilst not compromising sound.

“I’m now able to seamlessly swap in a mouthpiece which feels the same to play, is bang in tune, but provides more support to help hit the highest notes, especially those above high C.”

“This really helped in playing The Lost Circle test piece, where C sharps and top D’s littered the part. As it was so high, I used the Sonic for about 50% of the piece, with the remainder on my PR1. It worked a treat and helped me to deliver a strong performance.”

These are now available to pre order with a lead time of 2-3 weeks

For more info on the new Sonic mouthpiece, please have a look on our website.

George Barker