Description

merefts2

TEXT OR CALL COOKIE 703 703 7351

Frank Wells Tenor Mouthpiece Extremely rare HARD TO FIND FRANK WELLS OWN MAKE TENOR SAXOPHONE MOUTHPIECE IN VERY FINE CONDITION MID 1950’S APRX.

I was not familure with this name but did a lot of research.  Frank Wells was from Chicago and refaced a lot of the mouthpieces for the greats , including Coltrane etc.
IN THE 50’S  he had a partnership with STOWELL AND SCHNEIDER. HEAR IS SOME INFO FROM THE CLARINET B BOARD THREAD WHICH I BELIEVE IS ACCURATE REFERECE MATERIAL. THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT CLARINET MOUTHPIECES BUT I THINK THE ORIGINS OF F. WELLS OWN MAKE SAX MOUTHPIECES WOULD RUN PARALLEL TO CLARINET PIECES. SEEMS LOGICAL TO ME.

(Jerome Stowell was associate principal clarinet in the Chicago Symphony) Wells, & Schneider. Both Wells and Schneider made the mouthpieces, Schneider being much older and not with the company beyond about 1954. Stowell designed the mouthpiece and tested various models while Frank Wells, who was originally a trumpet player and a machinist, did the work from blanks…when Wells and Stowell terminated the partnership, Wells continued to make the mouthpieces with only his name on them. Wells used the same logo stamp and simply filed off the other two names. Some of the early mouthpieces after the partnership ended still had very faint traces of the Stowell and Schneider names from the stamp not being quite cleaned off completely. By the way, the business end of the mp company was handled by Stowell, who along with being a clarinetist and teacher, was a CPA with his business degree from the Univ. of Chicago.

ANOTHER BIT OF INFO FROM THE SAXOPHONE THREADS:

>THE SOUND…of those Wells was interesting.
 As Frank said, ” They really exposed your imagination fast”.
In short- they could be played VERY powerful. Not bright like a
Dukoff tho, but BIG and powerful. Classy sound. Big like a Tabackin or
gutty Rollins sound. Some of the blues guys with BB KING and Bobby Blue Bland<

>That’s Wells’s patented design, with high baffle (epoxy, I think; not part of the molded blank)<

>Frank Wells. INNOVATOR, genius and man of thought. This guy NEVER
copied anothers idea, he worked his fingers to the stubb trying to come up
with…SOMETHING BETTER.<

1 TABLE NICE
2 TIP AND RAILS FINE SHAPE
3 NOT A LOT OF SCRATCHES OVERALL VERY NICE AND CLEAN
4 BEAK HAS SOME LIGHT SCRATCHES BUT NOT ANY TOOTH DEEP MARKS

THIS IS A VERY INTERESTING MPC AND RARE AS FAR AS I CAN DETERMINE.
ANY COMMENTS TO FURTHER SHED LIGHT ON FRANK’S OWN MAKE MOUTHPIECES IS WELCOME.

I TRIED TO THE BEST OF MY ABLITY TO DESCRIBE THE ITEM.