Klarinet Archive - Posting 000380.txt from 2003/12

From: "Don Hatfield" <dhatfield@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] kaspar mouthpiece collection on ebay
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2003 09:33:29 -0500

Hey, Ken -

I'll try to make a long story short for you. and anyone else can chime in if
I am too vague. There has been a load of talk on the list about the Kaspars,
and there are four divisions or 'eras' to them. There were two Kaspars
(http://test.woodwind.org/Databases/Logs/1996/02/000302.txt ,
http://test.woodwind.org/Databases/Logs/1999/11/001075.txt) the elder
started out working for Goldbeck in Illinois, and later bought the company
and moved it to Chicago. I have two Goldbeck mouthpieces made by Frank L.
Kaspar when he was with the company, and it's nearly identical to a Cicero
or Chicago Kaspar. I have used the Cicero and an Ann Arbor since 1970, and I
guess it's been a 'holy grail' for me, but I'm about to undertake the search
for a modern piece to retire the Cicero before it gives up the ghost. Then
there's the Ann Arbors. The elder Kaspar is responsible for these, and I
have had as many as a dozen I got thirty years+ ago from my instructor, who
was a student of Bill Stubbins and actually worked for Mr. Kaspar in his.

If you want to email me off-list so I don't use up air time here, I'll
provide you with more info on the subject. The darned things DON NOT play
that well on a Leblanc, but I have a story about that as well.

Don Hatfield

> I have a bad feeling I'm really going to hate myself for asking this....
>
> What is it about the original Kaspars that makes them so valuable? I
> know of originals that have gone for over $500 on eBay, and I gather
> that's what people pay in the real world, too.
>
> Why? What separates an original Frank Kaspar from a good copy that can
> set you back two hundred bucks? The seller describes these as the Holy
> Grail of clarinet mouthpieces. One more time: Why?

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