I agree that altissimo control is more by the player and not the mouthpiece--I for one have excellent altissimo control (not trying to brag, but I can scream like Sanborn on a C* because my fundamentals are solid)--that's been my bread and butter for the past 17 years . . . that being said, the DV is a mouthpiece with a high baffle, which in theory should make the altissimo range easier (with certain trade-offs) . . . with the exception of the DV, I've been able to pull off altissimo stuff with relative ease on all the baffled mouthpieces I've tried with no problems at all . . . the DV just wasn't stable (of course, I could have just gotten a bad piece, but for $500, you'd expect them to be fairly consistent from piece to piece). I know a number of my fellow pros out here in the L.A. area that just don't like the DV. A number of us who actually bought them are going back to our old pieces, and have either sold or traded our DVs (I'll likely put mine up on eBay sometime in the next month or so).

The pieces he sent me were crap. I wrote him trying to get some help with different reed/lig setups, etc and he called me. He was very rude and arrogant. He did refund my money, but I found his demeanor very unprofessional.