Klarinet Archive - Posting 000952.txt from 1998/03

From: Martijn.Visser@-----.COM
Subj: Re: mouthpiece
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 04:04:35 -0500

Hand faced mouthpieces are made out of regular mouthpieces (vandoren,
wurlitzer etc.). The face is adjusted manually (variables: size, angle).
They can be obtained with very small variations, so that you can choose one
out of a serie that perfectly suits you.

I'm playing on a wurlitzer mouthpiece (hand faced by Viotto) with a german
bore on my buffet clarinets. The conbination gives a very good tone, and
makes it easy to play extremely soft. It the beginning I had to get used to
playing with a small bore and other reeds (it was difficult to blow the air
into the mouthpiece), but after a week or two, there was great improvement.
The only thing I had to alter was my barrel (the cork fitting of the
mouthpiece was longer).

I live in the Netherlands and my teacher at the Conservatory knew a
collegue who sold the mouthpieces for Viotto in The Hague. I could test
about 10 different mouthpieces. The mouthpiece costs about $140.
Especcialy interesting for clarinettists in The Netherlands.

Martijn Visser