Klarinet Archive - Posting 000804.txt from 1999/02

From: James Pyne <jpyne@-----.edu>
Subj: [kl] Clarification/was Bay cost
Date: Sat, 20 Feb 1999 04:39:27 -0500

I was under the impression that this forum was not for the purpose of
promotion or advertising. However I must respond to statements made by
Roger Garrett, in support of his own work, about the mouthpieces I design
and produce in our family business, Pyne/Clarion Inc.

>The Bb's I make cost $35 - and they are hard rubber -
>same blanks Jim Pyne uses - and his sell for $170.

Pyne/Clarion Signature mouthpieces are not re-faced blanks as Mr. Garrett
implies. The bores (~M, Pk, Jx, Bn, Bc) of the Signature mouthpieces I
produce are cut/reamed at my studio workshop here in Columbus. Additionally
the tone chamber, windway and baffle are hand-filed and finished to work
optimally with each given bore shape. The specially shaped reamers I use
for the different bores are of my own design and, to the best of my
knowledge, unique. Also unique are hand-finishing processes (and tools)
used to complete the dimensions of the tone chambers. It is very difficult
to imitate all of this. So unless Mr. Garrett has completed successful
measurements (a daunting task in itself), duplicated my tooling and taught
himself how to use it, he cannot, as he implies, provide equivalent
products. If someone tells a clarinetist, like Mr. Garrett, that Pyne has
gotten his raw blanks from "so and so" (and I have gotten them from many
sources) it doesn't say much about Pyne mouthpieces --- except that they
are produced from hard rubber.

>Granted, he skews the rails and the feel is different,

I believes that by "skews" Mr. Garrett means producing an asymmetrical
facing. While it is fairly easy to put on a conventional facing the
asymmetrical type is quite difficult to apply. For many years I have
explored and documented asymmetrical facings. It is not commonly known, but
true, that both Harold Wright and Robert Marcellus played asymmetrical
facings.(I personally measured the mouthpieces of these players many years
ago, Marcellus in his first years at Northwestern and Wright at the
Marlboro Festival).

>but the bottom line? It takes 20 minutes to make a great mouthpiece from a
>finished blank.
>Scott Wright told me that Pyne made 5 mouthpieces for him to try during a
>one hour
>lesson when he was at Michigan!

Yes, I can face at least 10 mouthpieces in an hour. I've been at this for
so many years that I can do it quickly... even with asymmetrical facings.
However the preparation of the bore, chamber etc. takes a great deal of
time. When I work in the studio with a performer (or my own students) the
bulk of the work has already been done. For example, the last time Ricardo
Morales was here we adjusted 15 or so mouthpieces in about three hours. (It
is out of those sessions that the Bel Canto model has come). All of those
mouthpieces were completed (bored, chambered, playable facing etc.,
requiring many, many hours of work), BEFORE Ricardo arrived and we began
making delicate adjustments.

Almost all mouthpiece "makers" really re-face blanks. Facing mouthpieces
and making baffle adjustments are straightforward tasks that can be done
quickly, as by the Zinner (and other) blank enthusiasts. This should not be
confused with a more comprehensive approach that requires machining and
hand-finishing of the critical internal dimensions of the mouthpiece (bore,
tone-chamber, windway, ramp etc.) as well as the facing and baffle. I do
not use Zinner blanks. Scribed on each of my Signature mouthpieces is a
letter set that describes its unique bore/chamber shape (~M, Pk, Jx, Bn,
Bc). All of these internal-shape models are in use by very prominent
clarinetists and have thereby "proven" their ability to support a high
level of artistry. The variety of bore/chamber configurations, along with a
broad range of both asymmetrical and symmetrical facings, has provided
exceptional versatility in meeting the individual physical and artistic
needs of a large number of clarinetists.

Sincerely,

---Jim Pyne

James Pyne
Clarinet Studio/Research Group
School of Music
The Ohio State University
1866 College Road
Columbus, Ohio 43210
pyne.1@-----.edu
Tel: 614 292 8969
Fax: 614 292 1102
http://www.arts.ohio-state.edu/Music/Clarfest

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