Klarinet Archive - Posting 000494.txt from 2002/09

From: "David B. Niethamer" <dnietham@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Changing mouthpieces
Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 21:59:32 -0400

on 9/23/2002 11:11 AM, Christopher Hill wrote:

>I tend to stick with one mouthpiece for as long as possible.

This is my method as well. Sure, you can achieve some temporary "fix" by
changing mouthpieces, but you might be able to do it by changing reeds,
or even changing clarinets. IMO, you can't even begin to learn what a
mouthpiece has to offer unless you play it for 4-6 weeks. Of course, to
invest that sort of time in a mouthpiece, it would have to feel pretty
good from the start.

>Perhaps
>it's because I work on so many that I want to keep grounded. It does
>help that I can take out the wear by refacing it whenever necessary.
>Hard rubber mouthpieces warp, so that the facing is different after
>awhile. A mouthpiece made of softer material, such as the old
>Chedevilles that I like to play on, will need to be refaced more often
>than some others. Personally, I begin to feel rail wear after about two
>to three years, so I bring the mouthpiece back to specs at that point.
>After too many refacings, a mouthpiece tends to lose something.

A few good mouthpiece people over the years explained to me that refacing
eventually changes other dimensions in a significant way, and possibly
not for the better. So, while refacing may be of value to restore a
favorite mouthpiece, you can't expect to do it forever.

>I played my last mouthpiece from 1993 until it was dropped last
>November.

My current mpc is a Hawkins, which I've had for 3 years. Before that I
spent a few years searching for a replacement for my Gigliotti (refaced
by Dong Jin Kim) which I played for 7 years, and used for two recordings
I'm pleased with.

I believe this thread started with a question about the M13/14/Lyre mpcs,
which I played for a while. My RSO colleague and I saw lots of these
mouthpieces, because we got them for students, and we always picked them
over in case there was something we liked better than what we had. Our
impression was that 1.) they were pretty consistent - more so than the
B45 types from Vandoren, and 2.) they responded and tuned very well. My
beef ultimately was that I didn't like the sound of the mpc in the
orchestra. All the Zinner blank mouthpieces had a nicer inherent sound. I
know the scientists will say that material (like size!) doesn't matter.
OK, so I'm crazy.

Someone else asked about the Larry Combs. IIRC, Elmer Aiello (of Leblanc)
designed these mouthpieces somewhere around 1980 or so. Then he left
Leblanc and took the knowledge about quality control of these mpcs with
him. They were an inconsistent mess, but the good ones were great. I
liked them better with handmade reeds than with Vandorens (no V12 or
Zonda in them thar days!). When Tom Ridenour came to Leblanc, he changed
the blank, and changed the facing designations on the mpc, and I could
never find another one that I liked as well as those "good old" ones.
Hey, maybe we could start a new clarinet mouthpiece obsession on eBay!
"Old" Combs mpcs!!

For me, the process is - find a mouthpiece that you like. Then learn to
play it. Learn to fix reeds for it. See if it still is doing everything
you need it to do in 6-8 weeks. Don't be in a big hurry to change unless
you can find something significantly better.

</rant>
</soapbox>

David

David Niethamer
dnietham@-----.edu
http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/

---------------------------------------------------------------------