Klarinet Archive - Posting 000176.txt from 1999/08

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Student mouthpieces
Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 13:26:16 -0400

At 05:16 PM 8/10/99 -0000, you wrote:
>All three I mentioned are plastic. Two I am personally familiar with
>(the Debut and Premier) as I helped two young students get them a
>couple of years back. Both are in remarkable shape today - I put
>a mouthpiece patch on them to preclude any problems with wear. Both
>young students are still using them, and are doing very well after 2
>years of use.
>
>Mark C.

My only reason for mentioning plastic was to point out the difference in
case a buyer has a preference for hard rubber or plastic. I don't have my
beginning students purchase a plastic mouthpiece - I ask them to go to hard
rubber. While many people may disagree, I personally believe a plastic
mouthpiece will never sound quite as nice as a duplicate hard rubber. In
other words, a well made plastic mouthpiece doesn't, generally, sound as
good as an equally well made hard rubber mouthpiece. Mouthpiece makers
sell plastic cheaper because they get it cheaper, but their markup is
considerably higher. In many cases, the difference between a plastic blank
and an identical hard rubber blank is between $5 and $8. Many mouthpiece
makers then sell the plastic for $15 over what they paid and the hard
rubber anywhere between $25 and $150 over what they paid. My observation
is that the mouthpiece makers, by virtue of their pricing, appear to favor
the hard rubber mouthpiece as representative of their work over the
plastic. This indicates to me that they also prefer the hard rubber. It
is also possible that they rely on the public to assume hard rubber is
better and raise their price accordingly. I don't know for sure what they
think - only what I and close colleagues think about the differences.

Roger Garrett
Professor of Clarinet
Director, Concert Band/Symphonic Winds/Titan Band
Advisor, Recording Studio
Illinois Wesleyan University
Office: (309) 556-3268
Fax: (309) 556-3411

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org