I grew up in Orange County, California, near Los Angeles. I studied clarinet and saxophone from a young age and after studying at Fullerton College in teh early 1990s I worked mainly as a saxophone player for the next 20 years. I ended up working as a Musical Director on some cruise ships, for Princess and Cunard lines. During that period, I became fairly obsessed with figuring out what makes mouthpieces work or not work. I would reface mouthpieces in my spare time, and after a while I got pretty good at it, and several of the BBC and other session players in London were playing my work. So when I settle down here in Yorkshire, England, I decided I wanted to do better than the designs already available to me off the shelf.

I began by hogging out chambers on blanks I sourced in Europe (the NYZ and FLZ mouthpieces), but there was only so much I could do with these, and I had too many ideas I couldn't express this way. So I started to design my own from scratch. I've always been good with computers so the CAD design wasn't too high a hurdle, and I spent a year learning to be a machinist and CAM programmer so that I could really do it right . Having control of every step in the process gives me tremendous flexibility when it comes to prototyping and custom design. In 2012 I finished my first wholly original mouthpiece (the Original), which I am proud of and still produce. But there is always something different you can do, to suit a different voice or different needs, so the number of designs on offer had to multiply, and evolve, and it will continue to do so.

Having the right design is one thing, but I believe the art is in the hand finishing. Having the hands for the fine finishing of the facing and tipwork, and the professional chops to tell the difference between perfection and pretty good are both essential. I am proud of every one of my mouthpieces, and I hope you enjoy playing them as much as I do.

see the mouthpieces