I just got a S80 in a D facing today, as someone suggested it. It feels very nice, although I just started playing soprano this week, so I can't say very much. One thing, is that my soprano is brand new, so the cork on the neck has not flattened or mashed at all. The end of the mpc is a little to small to fit on to the neck w/o damaging the cork. I am going to keep it in spite. Maybe have the cork replaced w/ something thinner.

This is piece of first class quality. When I started on sop after playing tenor many years, I tried several mouthpieces including the ubiquitous 4C, the Morgan Protone and the Bari 66. The 4C served to get me started at building my sop chops. But after a month I was ready to move up. The Protone was fair. The Bari 66 was too open for me. I bought an S80 E and it was just right. It was similar in sound and effort to the Protone but was much better for playing both high and low notes. All notes have a very good tone. I have been very happy with Vandoren 2.5 ZZ reeds used with this piece. I can have a sweet sound for ballads and a bright sound for jazz just with a little variation in my mouth and breath. I will be satisfied with this piece for a long time. I might even go "pro" again. If you are inexperienced, you might want to use WWBW's mouthpiece trial policy to test a few sizes before buying one.

This mouthpiece is great for any skill level, because it allows control without restricting the more advanced player. I'm playing on the C** and I've used it for both classical and jazz, and, more importantly, I play a lot of chamber music in saxophone quartets. Chamber music requires such a huge amount of control (especially on a soprano!) that I would never play in my quartet unless I bring this mouthpiece along. Great for modern classical, band, and chamber music. It can be used for jazz, but I'd recommend something a bit more open.

I briefly talked about this mouthpiece when I wrote a review on Yamaha 4C mouthpiece. I use Selmer S-80 E with BG Traditional ligature and Vandoran Jazz #2 1/2 reed. You might wonder where I could use this kind of setup. I used this setup in my symphonic band at my high school. I had a long soprano solo. With this setup, I was able to play with bright sounds that were still permittable in classical pieces. If you have any chunk of experience with soprano saxophone, I would recommend you to buy at least C** for classical music and at least E and higher for Jazz.

I bought the C* S80 about two years ago when in 9th grade and it dramatically improved my tone, eased the ability to articulate, and also improved tonation. But now I'm looking at the Larry Teal Selmer because of its round chamber compared to the C*'s square chamber. The S80 is the most popular classical mouthpiece in the world today, but Larry Teal is becoming very popular. I'd give it a look as well as the C*.