My vintage Morgan Excalibur “EL” is a “Streamline Excalibur model with a 6 (.090) tip opening and a medium bright chamber. It is believed to have been made by Erik Greiffenhagen. This model is still in production today. I don’t typically play hard rubber/composite etc mouthpieces, but this is one of the ones I really like.

“Why don’t you use it more often?”

This a question I get pretty often when I talk about how much I enjoy this mouthpiece. The answer is a couple of reasons. First, it’s vintage. I haven’t asked Morgan directly if the rubber material used to make the early mouthpieces is the same as what they use today, but I’ve heard from a few players that it is different. It would make sense, as everything (wood, steel etc) is different than it was years ago.

Other than my horn (Selmer Super 80 II), I wouldn’t use anything vintage daily. I’m too hard on things. I don’t like the ideal of beating on something that really can’t be replaced. Even my horn is about to be phased out of daily use in the next year or so. It’s one of the reasons you’ll probably never see me play a MK6.

The other reason is that the chamber is just a little too big for me, and the tip is probably a little too small for me. As a result, for me, it doesn’t project well enough to use on a lot of the shows I play. It backs up a little when I push hard on the loud gigs.

It is however, very warm and fat sounding. Both of which are things I need to be truly comfortable in expressing myself.

And that’s the scoop on my Vintage Excalibur mouthpiece.