Over the past few years, interest in the Rico Royal Metalite mouthpieces, especially those for baritone saxophone, has not waned. These initially low-cost mouthpieces, which retailed for well under $20, now command prices in excess of $100 on eBay, and other on-line sites.
A while ago a seller of a bari Metalite piece, included a photo of the chamber & facing chart on the outside of the original box, in their eBay ad. I found the information very interesting…
Source: eBay.com
The Metalite’s 2 “new” tip openings of M9 & M11, that Arnold Brilhart mentioned in his interview with the the Saxophone Journal, are shown as .120″ & .130″ respectively. Now I don’t know about you, but I’m a pretty solid bari player, and I have a hard time with a .130″ tip opening.
As a matter of fact, I did find a new-old-stock M11 in a music store a number of years ago. I bought the piece for about $15 Cdn. Only problem was I didn’t have my horn on me, so I couldn’t try it. When I got it home, I found couldn’t play it.
I ended up trading it with another SOTW member for his M5, but he couldn’t play the M11 either. It ended up getting traded again. I eventually lost track of the piece, but it was traded a number of times on the site. All the guys who got it, found it was too open for them. I remember thinking: Wow, who the hell was this piece built for?
Although Rico stopped making Metalites years ago, they do still manufacture the Graftonite pieces. Interestingly enough however, for the Graftonites, the selection is somewhat different. They come in one smaller tip opening than the Metalites did, and max out at .110″:
| Facing | Tip | Chamber | Tone | |
| B3 | 2.29 mm | .090″ | Med | All-round |
| B5 | 2.54 mm | .100″ | Med | All-round |
| B7 | 2.79 mm | .110″ | Med | All-round |
Source: doctorsax.biz
I guess the Metalites were manufactured for a different type of baritone saxophone player. Bari players who would chose these pieces, were generally not wall flowers. 
So I guess the thinking was that they would have some seriously developed chops, and would want & appreciate having big tip openings like .120″ & .130″. In reality, you would really have to “man up” to be able to play them. 😀
I love my M5, and wouldn’t ever trade it. I also love my B5, and really like the differences between the 2 pieces.
I don’t know if the new Graftonites are as good as the old ones. Perhaps one day I’ll drag my bari to the store and play test one to find out.
