Klarinet Archive - Posting 000781.txt from 2004/01

From: GrabnerWG@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Mouthpiece repair - can it be done?
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 08:29:16 -0500

I had an interesting project last week and I thought I'd mention it to the list.

Early last week, I had a distraught Mom call me. Through mis-handling, her son's mouthpiece was chipped. She explained to me it was a special mouthpiece, made from a Chedeville blank and had been given to her son by a beloved teacher. I had them come over.

It turned out to be an old Bettoney mouthpiece and yes is was royally chipped. A big "V" shaped chunk was taken out of the tip, to the right of center, and the pieces were sticking on to the mouthpiece pad.

I said I'd take a look at it, but there was a 99% chance that it was just a goner.

Well, I fumbled about with it for a day, and right away decided there was no way of "gluing" the piece back together, with like super glue or something.

I decided to try epoxy. So I got out my special "Ferree's" super epoxy and mixed up a small batch. I put slippery package sealing tape inside the mouthpiece so it conformed to the curve of the baffle and eased in a big glob of epoxy. As it started to cure, I smoothed it to conform somewhat closely to the original tip rail curve, leaving plenty of extra.

Surprise, surprise, after it cured for a day the epoxy was as hard as the original rubber, maybe harder. I used normal mouthpiece techniques to thin the tip rail and polish the upper baffle. (I used a file, grinder, and my buffing wheel to make the beak (where the teeth go) conform to a nice smooth profile.

When I was done, the mouthpiece played very well, as well as many of my new mouthpieces. I don't know how good it was before it was chipped, but it still played very well. I tried it with several nasty excerpts.

Has anyone else out there done anything similar? Has it worked well? Did the repair last? (I gave the student a 50% credit on the repair toward a new mouthpiece if the repair lasted less than two years).

Anyway, I thought I'd share this one with the list to see if similar things have happened elsewhere. Tony, aren't there some guys in the U.K. that do similar work?

Walter Grabner
www.clarinetxpress.com
world-class clarinet mouthpieces

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