Klarinet Archive - Posting 000563.txt from 2002/10

From: GrabnerWG@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Mouthpiece/instrument match, was: Taming some wild throat tones
Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2002 11:08:29 -0400

In a message dated 10/22/2002 7:08:51 AM Eastern Standard Time, nebuckman@-----.edu writes:

(About her Patricola C clarinets)

<< Folks are surprised though that their favorite
mouthpieces don't always work well on these instruments.>>

I want to make a little comment here because it is co-incidental with a few interesting experiences I have had.

There is little reason to expect that a mouthpiece that plays well on one clarinet will play equally well on another of a different brand/model/type.

Last fall I was working with a prominent player, who greatly preferred my straight wall mouthpieces. He eventually bought of my CX_SW1 models. Yet, when he was trying mouthpieces on his students clarinet, he greatly preferred the the angled wall model.

It turns out that he was using a custom barrel (not a Chadash or Moennig), and the particular bore of that barrel really MATCHED the bore and windway of the SW1 mouthpiece.

When he played a "stock" R-13, the sound was better with the AW mouthpiece. Same player, same approach, same day, same reed.

So why be surprised when a "favorite" mouthpiece doesn't work as well on a Patricola C?

Here's another one. I have a very fine bass clarinet mouthpiece. It's a Selmer C *, which I have re-faced and re-voiced to my own precise specs.

However, it does not work equally well on all bass clarinets. Sometimes a cheaper, lower quality mouthpiece gets better results on certain instruments.

It is becoming more and more obvious to me that when trying out mouthpieces, we are matching the mouthpiece to the instrument as much as we are to ourselves.

Walter Grabner
www.clarinetxpress.com
mouthpieces

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