Better Mouthpiece - Since 1974
We are a boutique mouthpiece shop, with small sales volume, affording time and care to create your saxophone or clarinet mouthpiece. Precision manufacturing and small production runs are combined with hand-crafted finishing protocol, creating the optimum product.
Each mouthpiece is finished with a machine-tooled fixture, the Variable Radius Mouthpiece Facer, designed by Emil Anello and hand-finished to final specifications measured by hand-micrometer to the 1/1000th of an inch.
Variable Radius Mouthpiece Facer - Designed and Patented by Emil Anello
Hard Rubber vs Plastic
“There is no denying that plastic mouthpieces are cheaper. However, that is where the advantage ends (Emil Anello).”
- Anello Mouthpieces are made from non-deforming hard rubber for best response. With plastic mouthpieces, warping is common and causes squeaking and tonal imbalances between registers. Hard rubber eliminates these concerns.
- Hard rubber is considered a thermosetting material where the application of heat (as in molding) permanently changes the molecular structure of the material. The resulting form is a fixed endpoint.
- Plastic mouthpieces are considered thermoplastic. The application of heat does NOT change the molecular structure of plastic, but merely allows it to be shaped, temporarily, into a plastic shape.
Plastic Mouthpieces Have Plastic Memory
Because of its temporary nature, plastic mouthpieces have what is known in the industry as plastic memory, in which the material over time slowly reverts to its original state. This causes the original facing to be disrupted over time.
Plastic Mouthpieces – Squeaking and Intonation
- Plastic memory causes warping and is common in plastic mouthpieces.
- Warping causes squeaking and problems with tonal balance between registers.
Plastics also have a higher coefficient of expansion and contraction caused by differences in surrounding temperatures - This extreme sensitivity to even modest temperature differences cause intonation problems.
Emil Anello - Musician & Mouthpiece Craftsman
Emil Anello, a professional musician from his teenage years in the 1930s to his passing in 2010, played clarinet, alto and tenor saxophone, flute, and sang with the chorus in the Florentine Opera Company.
In 1965, Emil Anello began working professionally with mouthpieces. He learned the art of refacing mouthpieces from an early music teacher, Robert Miller, who refaced mouthpieces by hand.
As a veteran tool designer of 35 years at the Square-D Company, Emil Anello appreciated the importance of precision and accuracy. As a result, Emil designed and patented a unique mechanical apparatus (pictured above) to reface mouthpieces, capable of tolerances to one-thousandth of an inch.
For several years to come, musicians requested his technical expertise for such services as restoring chipped mouthpieces, duplicating facings of legacy mouthpieces, and creating custom products with a variety of popular facings.
Through decades of experience refacing hundreds of mouthpieces, Emil Anello learned the most popular facing specifications among musicians and in 1974, he designed a mouthpiece using a composite of these popular specifications.
Emil Anello - Musician
Emil Anello - early years
Emil Anello performed in numerous big bands and combos, and played with the Eagles Club house band for performances that included Tony Bennett, Mel Torme, Sophie Tucker, Frankie Avalon, Liberace, Sergio Franchi, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Wayne Newton, Jimmy Durante, The Ink Spots, The Four Freshmen, The Four Aces, The Four Lads, Ford & Hines, Ted Louis (Mr. Entertainment), and Anna Maria Alberghetti.
Emil Anello was band leader of the Army Big Band that performed for USO concerts on Okinawa during WWII and performed in the powerful American Legion Band in Milwaukee for more than 50 years.
Emil was a member of several community bands and he also sang in the Florentine Opera Chorus with other Anello family members.
Emil Anello - later years
A Family Business – Mike Anello
Emil Anello began teaching his son Mike Anello the art of mouthpiece refacing when Mike was in high school. After careful tutoring, Mike became a partner in the mouthpiece business in 1999. Mike and Emil carefully documented the precision craft of creating these high-quality mouthpieces and accumulated a robust archive of this process for posterity and historical record. Some of this information is presented in the Emil Anello Virtual Mouthpiece Clinic
Emil Anello passed away in 2010, but wanted his mouthpiece design and craft to survive. Although the business was briefly shuttered after his passing, Mike Anello reopened the mouthpiece shop in 2019 to carry on the Anello tradition.
Mike grew up in a “Music Family” and played clarinet like his three older brothers. In early years, he was a member of concert and marching bands and earned a Pre-Engineering Degree at Milwaukee Tech High School where he learned the use of precision machine tools.
Mike was never a professional musician, but enjoyed the precision and craftmanship of his father’s business. Today, Mike carries on the tradition with help from local musicians participating in rigorous quality control and ongoing product development.
Philanthropy
Emil Anello was a music educator and strong supporter of music education. He gave private lessons for clarinet and saxophone, and taught music in Milwaukee Public Schools for more than 25 years. To continue support for music education, Anello Mouthpieces will donate $25 from each mouthpiece sold to Forward Performing Arts, Inc, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) Wisconsin corporation, with musical programs that include Flourish Winds, Mad Brass SoundSport, Black Star Drumline, and The Madison Scouts Drum & Bugle Corps. Your purchase supports music education!
Anello Mouthpieces also offers discounts for the educator, student, or music program. For school district purchases of 4 or more mouthpieces, contact Mike Anello directly to discuss significant discounts for your school’s music program.
Phone: 414-704-0209
Email: info@anellomouthpieces.com
Reviews - Tell us about your Anello Mouthpiece
Contact: info@anellomouthpieces.com