Klarinet Archive - Posting 000937.txt from 2000/02

From: Kenneth Wolman <kwolman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Bass clarinet...a BAD saxophone sound?
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2000 08:46:02 -0500

At 08:12 AM 2/25/00 -0500, you wrote:

> >Selmer bass mouthpieces are at least a step in the right direction.
> >With re-facing and voicing they can be made to play really well.

"Is a puzzlement" as the King of Siam said. When I got my used Bundy a=20
year ago, the repair place that sold it to me suggested as a starter=20
mouthpiece a Selmer D facing which I gather is the same as the HS**. It's=
=20
REAL open and was a bear to play...though the low register rattled the=20
windows. I just bought the thing without having it modified.

> >I'm working on a design that allows that "big low register sound" that
> >we all love so well, but keeps a clear, non-honky clarion
> >register.....just like a clarinet that just happens to be twice too
> >long..... The design involves the same size chamber, but with a
> >dramatically reduced windway, that also CONCENTRATES to flow of air.,
> >I'll need it.

Ah, the search for the perfect mouthpiece:-). Well, I found one that does=
=20
more or less what you describe. The Pomarico crystal #1 facing with a 2=BD=
=20
or 3 Grand Concert reed does wonderful things even for a student-level=20
instrument. As I've gotten more and more into the bass, I find I prefer=20
this to any other mouthpiece I have, irrespective of what I'm trying (the=20
operative word) to play at the time.

Oddly, I've also had good luck with a cheapie I picked up on a whim, a=20
Yamaha. The Vandoren B46 I picked up for jazz playing (w/ 1=BD Hemke tenor=
=20
reed) is SO open that the lower register turns the horn into a guaranteed=20
lease-breaker; but playing in the clarion register or above is agonizing=20
and there are only so many ways I can twist my mouth to adjust to the MP's=
=20
characteristics.

Actually, I'd like to try any of these mouthpieces on a Selmer or Buffet=20
low-C bass, but that's for when the lottery swings my way:-).

Ken
----------------------
Kenneth Wolman http://www.rio-cardoner.com
"The East River. But it was not a river at all. Merely a column of water
connecting the upper harbor to the Sound. Yet everyone called it a river.
They chose not to think about it. They clung to the surface of things."
--Peter Quinn, "Banished Children of Eve"

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