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At the time this blog was written, there had been some recent Ebay sales of mouthpieces from the estate of Charles Bay. The original Ebay seller apparently didn't know much about the items, but they sold well because the connection to Charles Bay. The items are now coming back on the market from Ebay purchasers who thought that they knew what they were buying. These mouthpieces are re-appearing with some very odd allegations (which seems to be standard with vintage mouthpieces). I don't know if this one was refaced by the seller and would no longer represent Charles Bay's excellent work on the piece (assuming that he worked on it). If so, the seller was able to channel the ghost of Malcolm Culver Gregory to produce a mouthpiece that is reportedly spookily similar to a vintage Rico M.C. Gregory brand mouthpiece.
This was the auction title.
GALE COMPANION .100" or #7 TENOR SAX MOUTHPIECE - CHARLES BAY ESTATE
This is what was sold.
This is what was stated (in the original font).
RECENTLY I ACQUIRED SOME BLANKS AND CASTINGS THAT WERE PART OF THE CHARLES BAY WORKSHOP. MR. BAY TOOK OVER THE LINE OF MOUTHPIECES THAT DESCENDED FROM GREGORY AND GALE.
HERE IS A GREAT GALE COMPANION MOUTHPIECE BLANK, EXPERTLY WORKED UP TO A #7 OR .100" TIP OPENING VINTAGE HARD RUBBER TENOR SAX MOUTHPIECE.
THE MOUTHPIECE EMITS A VERY FULL BODIED, RICH AND SOMEWHAT WARM TONE WITH SOME EDGE THAT WILL BECOME BRIGHTER AND MORE CRISP WHEN PUSHED.
THE DESIGN FEATURES A MEDIUM SIZED ROUND CHAMBER WITH SCOOPED SIDEWALLS AND A SLIGHTLY CONCAVE, ALMOST FLAT BAFFLE. EXCELLENT QUALITY VINTAGE RUBBER.
GALE WAS GREGORY'S DAUGHTER. SHE WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR CONTINUING THE LINE OF MOUTHPIECES WITH SOME IMPROVEMENTS TO HER DISCRETION. THIS MOUTHPIECE HAS SOME SIMILARITIES TO A GREGORY 7A 16 BUT WITH A MORE DYNAMIC TONE CHARACTER NOT CAPTURED IN MOST MODERN HARD RUBBER MOUTHPIECES. PLAY TESTED ON RIGOTTI GOLD #3 SOFT REEDS. THIS JUST SPARKLES WITH SOUND.
It is also odd that the mouthpiece "HAS SOME SIMILARITIES TO A GREGORY 7A 16," as we now know that Malcolm Gregory had nothing to do with this mouthpiece or the Gale Companion or Charles Bay.
This is what a Gale Companion actually looks like.
As you can see, what was sold on Ebay for $179.95 was not a Gale Companion. Bay did, however, use the identical blank sold on Ebay for some of his mouthpieces. Here is one.
Riffault sold blanks with a standard "in house" facing, but you could order them without ligature lines, the "STEELITE EBONITE" stamp, etc. You could even order them without the "FRANCE" country of origin label. More on that in the Riffault blog.
Here is another of the alleged "Gale Companion" mouthpieces with yet another name stamped on it. I paid $14 for the last one of these that I bought.
When I spoke with Bernadette Mimault, the daughter of Maurice Riffault, she stated that Riffault sold blank mouthpieces to both Ideal and Charles Bay (along with lots of other businesses) during her more than 50 years working at SARL Riffault et Fils. I'll write more about Ideal in my blog about Riffault.
The first mouthpiece above, which sold on Ebay for $179, may have had $175 worth of work performed on it. I don't know. But now you know that it is not a Gale Companion. It is a Riffault blank (that Bay didn't bother to stamp).
So why would the Ebay seller believe that the mouthpiece sounds like a vintage Rico M.C. Gregory mouthpiece? Probably because of autosuggestion, a phenomenon related to the placebo effect. If you believe that the Ebay mouthpiece was related to Charles Bay, you are likely to believe that it is related somehow to Malcolm Gregory. Why? Because Bay believed that the business that he purchased was related to M.C. Gregory (he did not know that Mr. Gregory was an employee of Rico). By repeating that story over and over, it becomes "established fact" to some people and they can hear the ghost of M.C. Gregory in a Bay mouthpiece (although it isn't clear if Gregory ever played a woodwind).
I'm still looking for any verification that Bay or Gale had anything to do with the Rico "M.C. Gregory" brand of mouthpieces, or Malcolm Culver Gregory. I'm also looking for any indication that Bay or Gale Products ever had the Rico Gregory facing schedules, the Rico Gregory company records, the Rico Gregory engraving stamps, etc. Obviously, if Mr. Cesar Tschudin (who produced the "Companion" mouthpieces under the Gale name) was a continuation of M.C. Gregory's business and ever produced a single M.C. Gregory mouthpieces, he would have also included the necessary engraving stamp in the sale to Mr. Bay.
Ooops, there has never been any mention of the engraving stamp, or company records, or facing schedules, or other items that would either indicate and/or be required for the production of a Gregory mouthpiece. We will need some powerful autosuggestion to cover over those obvious omissions. Powerful autosuggestion is obviously out there. It is the amazing power of autosuggestion which produces that special Gregory sound in the above "Gale Companion," which was made by Mr. Bay from a Riffault blank.
Now that we have seen the actual heritage of the mouthpiece blank, autosuggestion might have us say that the mouthpiece sounds "IDEAL."™*
* Ideal is the trademark of Ideal Musical Merchandise Company, New York, NY. Ideal mouthpieces are made with special ebonite the identical hard rubber compound used in vintage C. Chedeville and A. Lelandais mouthpieces. And they are from France!
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