Jody Jazz Tenor HR* 5*

In my tenor sax learning quest, at a point I decided to upgrade my mouthpiece from the Yamaha 5C I was using to something more "interesting". Many experts on the Internet praise Jody Jazz in general and this particular mouthpiece, so I gave it a go. Generally speaking the manufacturing seems of very high quality, the sound I can obtain is pleasant with nice shades of dark/bright and a fair degree of versatility. I feel like I can play very different genres with it, which to me is a plus. But, if you are looking for a very bright or very dark sound, maybe other options are better suited.

While I liked its tonal quality, the responsiveness was a bit lacking when compared to other hard rubber mouthpieces I have tried. I am not sure whether it's me, my not-so-professional horn, or some intrinsic characteristic of the mouthpiece, however when compared for example to a Vandoren Java or V16 (both of which, I believe, are fairly similar to this piece), or to a Berg Larsen 2/SMS (which has some more baffle and a different interior design), the HR* response was always sub-par. I am not sure if I would opt for it as I appreciate better responsiveness, but again, there is for sure a lot of subjectivity involved, so I would advice to try it against similar pieces (Vandoren Java, Meyer...) that also happen to be a bit cheaper, before buying one.