Kurt Heisig Music & Mouthpieces

Nestled off of Alvarado St. in Monterey is Kurt Heisig’s shop. I was in Monterey for my wedding. I typically bring my saxophone on vacation because I love playing it in random places to bring live music to people. I went to a music store down the street from Kurt’s shop to buy some reeds and I was disappointed with the quality of items they had for a saxophones. I happened to be walking past Kurt’s shop on my way back to my car. He wasn’t at the shop but he left his phone number on the door. I called him and I believe it was one of the best decisions i will ever make in regards to becoming a better musician. It is rare to find a saxophone specialist such as Kurt. i spent most of my free time before my wedding soaking in all the knowledge of Kurt musically and in life. He is a man of plenty of stories. I enjoyed Kurt’s company and I hope he enjoyed mine. I came to the shop to buy reeds and I was able to watch him make a custom made mouthpiece to my playing style and reeds that I use. I will be taking lessons with him and I would recommend any woodwind player to visit Kurt.

My experience with Kurt was brief but very important. I happened by his shop in Santa Cruz years ago and walked in to browse just before closing. Kurt was interesting/​very engaging to talk with. I hadn’t played trumpet in years, and mentioned something about some difficulties I had while playing — mind you, I’d played for many years previously, but never developed beyond a certain point. Kurt listened to me and told me his opinion of my approach, and another way to look at the issues I had. Additionally, Kurt made me aware of Claude Gordon, his method, theories, and equipment. and esp. the book Mr. Gordon wrote, «Brass Playing is No Harder than Deep Breathing» That is about 23 years ago, and Kurt’s advice that evening, and insistence that I read Claude’s book, changed my playing, and has allowed me to progress enormously over the many years. No one, until Kurt, including a previous well known brass instructor during my high school years, had given me anywhere near the basic understanding of how to approach the instrument, and tools to initiate my development. I owe Kurt a great Thank You.

I have bought many mouthpieces and horns from Kurt. At last count, he overhauled ten of my horns. When it comes to saxophone knowledge Kurt is as good as it gets. I highly recommend. On a personal level, he’s a lot of fun to talk to — very informative.

We are new to the area and needed to get my daughters flute adjusted/​tuned and also my nephews alto sax… knowing little about instruments myself and reading so many bad reviews I made a call to Kurt who came up on a search for teaching with excellent reviews! I brought our flute and sax in and he really is amazing! so much knowledge, even gave teaching advice throughout the process, when he was done with my daughters flute she stated even brand new it didn’t play this good! Sax sounds beautiful and the adjustment was in a snap!
Thank you again Kurt~ truly a professional and knowledgeable person. We will be coming here for all our instrument needs and lessons if needed!

Just on plain curiosity, I stopped into Kurt’s new shop in PG. He is a very nice guy, and so are his assistants. I don’t play, or know the first thing about music. Kurt was very welcoming and showed me and my father the instruments he makes and repairs, inspite of our own brass deficiency. He’s got a full selection of sheet music too, and does instruction. A real gem of a small business of downtown, and I hope he’s going to do well here.

Kurt is a consumate performing musician and woodwind instrument teacher, manufacturer and repair specialist. He also is a fine brass instrument teacher and his knowlege and teaching techniques have helped me immensely since I picked up my horn several years ago, not having played since College. He can remove dents and repair other damage quickly and fine tune your instrument to a level that you probably did not think possible. Kurt loves what he does and is willing to share his knowlege with all levels of students. Musicians looking for good value horns and mouthpieces that will allow them to achieve superior sound should check out Kurt’s store.

If you’re a brass or woodwind player, Kurt Heisig is the guy you want to see. He has a reasonable selection of instruments for sale, including a variety of under his own label. He’s a professional mouthpiece maker (for saxes), and while expensive (they’re hand made) they’re very, very worth it. He does instrument repair, and can likely make your horn sound better than it ever has. He’s also a great instructor, and the list of people he’s taught will shock and awe you. Seriously. Shock and awe.
He’s also just a fantastic guy to talk to (though he’ll talk your ear off if you give him half a chance), having been pretty much everywhere in the industry and met pretty much everyone.
Beware that he’s a total salesman, but he knows what he’s talking about, so if you’ve got the $$, what he’s selling is probably worth buying.