Klarinet Archive - Posting 000669.txt from 2001/11

From: GrabnerWG@-----.com
Subj: Re: [kl] Reamers or "Don't try this at home"
Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2001 14:51:46 -0500

Clark Fobes says:

<<This is not magic, just 25 years of hard won experience.>>

Clark is absolutely right. No magic.

I might add, there is only one way to get that 25 years of experience.

Let me relay an anecdote.

On Friday I had a visit from a clarinetist who has four or five Cicero Kaspars, one of which he plays as his "regular".

It's a fine mouthpiece, as nice as I have ever played on. (The others all had various different problems.)

One of the things we did was to compare my "regular" to his best Kaspar. I wanted to see what the crucial differences were, as we both agreed his Kaspar was better than my "regular".

As I compared the two mouthpieces, I began to work on my own mouthpiece. My guest blanched. "You're working and changing your best mouthpiece?"

I said "Yes, it's not as good as yours".

I made three changes to my mouthpiece, each one committing me to irreversible change.

I "flared" the window slightly at the very top of the mouthpiece.

I filed right below tip rail to slightly deepen the curve in this most sensitive beginning to the baffle.

I filed at the very bottom of the baffle, deepening it considerably.

Each change risked ruining the mouthpiece.

I was lucky. Each change improved the mouthpiece, quickening the response, deepening the "core" of the sound. I now have a much improved "regular" and I learned some more tricks to mouthpiece work.

I was also willing to go for broke.

That's how you get the 25 years experience.

Walter Grabbner

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