Britone Tenor Sax Mouthpiece

"6*"
Made in England

No Longer Available

Here is a beautiful example of a British-made Britone Tenor mouthpiece from the 60's. It was made for the ROC Instrument Co. in Birmingham, at the same factory that was making the British Brilhart Personalines and Streamlines. The material used appears to be the same as the Brilhart Tonalins, and the mouthpiece was banded at the factory, like British-made Brilharts, to prevent shank cracks. The piece is immaculate and shows no signs of wear. The rails were professionally balanced, and the 6* tip, which was not changed, measures .084".

ROC = Stands for Rudall O. Cocker (not Republic of China).
The piece was made in England, possibly by Rudall O. Cocker, who sold out to Boosey & Hawkes sometime in the 1930's. It is interesting that the logo used on the piece is very similar to one common to Boosey & Hawkes in post war years. The logo is a circle, around an eagle with spread wings. His talons rest on the O of ROC, the initials of the maker. Imprinted beneath the logo is "Made in England" There is a brass ferrule on the first 1/4" of the shank, and it has a sleeve of hard rubber inserted in the total length of the bore.

Of course, instead of an Eagle, the bird could well be the Roc from "A Thousand and One Arabian Nights". The Roc being a giant bird which dive bombed ships with immense boulders for turning its egg into an omelet and which carried Sinbad off to a mountaintop with huge quantities of gems.

The unusual V-shaped baffle was designed to cancel out overtones that would clash with the fundamental note being played. The tone is still rich and complex. The V-baffle permits you to play at noticeably higher volume levels when called for. This mouthpiece is a combination of beautiful workmanship and a unique design. The Britone is truly one-of-a-kind.

Received an e-mail July 16, 2010 providing the following information:
Hi, just a little information for you regarding the ROC Britone mouthpieces.
The name ROC came about when the two company founders, Norman Taylor (my father) and Harry Chance, were sitting in their office trying to think of a short name for their range of new mouthpieces when a large van passed the window.
On the side of this van was the company logo "Rubery Owen Company" hence the name ROC.
It wasn't long before they remembered that Roc was the name of a mythical bird...hence the logo was born. Nothing to do with Rudall O Carte or indeed Republic of China.
ROC manufactured the mouthpieces from scratch, I should know as I used to be a part of the production team, we also made mouthpiece for at least 6 other companies which were marketed under thier own brand names.
Hope that this info is of interest to you.
Regards,
"Name kept confidential"

In a later e-mail this same informant says:
ROC Instrument Co. stopped the manufacture of mouthpieces many years ago and moved into the manufacturing of office furniture.
Subsequently the company name changed to ROC Office Furniture. ROC was eventually sold in 2006.
P.S. Yes we did make Brillhart mouthpieces amongst others. In fact I have two on my desk, a Personaline Tenor and a Tonalin Alto.