Melody Mouthieces aims to make professional-quality classical saxophone mouthpieces available to everyone, regardless of budget. This has been a dream of mine for over 3 years. I bought a 3D printer about 9 years ago using money I made from selling hand-knitted hats, and I have loved every second of using it. When I started getting serious about playing the saxophone, my private lessons teacher suggested I buy a mouthpiece that wouldn't hold me back (I had been playing on a Hite Premiere). I was shocked when I saw the $180 price tag of the mouthpiece he suggested. I reluctantly coughed up the cash, though, using money from my mowing business, and was delighted with my new mouthpiece.
At that moment, an idea formed. I wanted to make my own top-of-the-line mouthpiece that I could make available to everyone. I didn't see a reason that a student should be held back from their full potential because they didn't have the money to buy a $200 mouthpiece. So I started designing my own. Almost two years, 147 prototypes, over a thousand hours of research and development, and over a dozen of kilograms of filament later, the Melody Mouthpieces Classical was born. If you cannot afford to pay the $40 price tag, please contact me and we can make something work.
Mouthpieces are designed, 3D printed, and hand-finished in Macomb, IL.
My name is David Simmons, and I am a senior at Macomb High School. Before you judge the quality of my mouthpieces based on my age, I want to get a few things straight. First, I did this business right. This is a passion project, and I never would have put these mouthpieces on the market if I wasn't sure that they were the best offering by far. About my 20th prototype was better than other $40 mouthpieces, but it was still clearly inferior to my professional mouthpiece. So I spent another year designing, through self-taught CAD skills, 127 more prototypes before I was satisfied that my mouthpieces could compete with any on the market. Second, selling things isn't really what I love or what I'm good at. Making things is. I'm not a very good salesman, and I absolutely hate "networking." Asking people to buy things makes me feel yucky, somehow. However, I need money to pay for college, and I don't feel bad about selling these because I know that I would happily buy them, and recommend them to friends, if I didn't own this company. This sentiment has been strengthened by the strongly positive responses that I've received from people that have bought my mouthpieces, from high school students to a university professor.
Last, I will bet on the quality of my mouthpieces. If you find that this is not the best mouthpiece on the market for the price, I'll take returns for a full refund (if you buy it from me directly. I have no control over my distributor's return policies).
Outside of mouthpiece making, I enjoy playing saxophone, playing sports, dreaming up things to make, and reading.
"The Melody Mouthpieces are responsive throughout the range of the instrument, even in tone quality, and they produce a rich sound. They offer an excellent balance between being free-blowing and offering enough resistance in the middle register of the horn. The mouthpieces are excellent - period. When you consider that their cost is less than a quarter of a professional mouthpiece, their value cannot be overstated. Younger saxophonists often look at cheaper alternatives for mouthpieces, but their options are bleak. The inferior mouthpieces often limit a student's ability and enjoyment when playing. David has done a great service in creating an affordable, high-quality mouthpiece. I can't recommend them strongly enough!"
--Dr. Charlie Chadwell, Professor of Saxophone at Western Illinois University