Klarinet Archive - Posting 000804.txt from 2004/01

From: "David McClune" <dmcclune@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl]Buffet Mouthpiece being called a Chedeville??
Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 09:38:23 -0500

I have worked on those 'old' mouthpieces such as old Buffets, French
Bundys, French Noblets. They take a great deal of work and the results
vary. You have to reshape the entire window, deepen the chamber floor,
and often rebore it. Any finished blank (old or new) will play ok to
decently, but the greatness comes from all the additional work. A maker
has a set of dimensions and shapes they are after which give the sound
and feel that they prefer.

Today's Zinner and Babbit blanks are a starting point from which we
modify to our goals. Recently some of the makers have had Zinner make
special models for them, not unlike what French Chedeville was doing for
Buffet, Kaspar, H. Chedeville, etc., to save them time. I still start
from the generic blank and do the grunt work to insure the right
dimensions.

A blank is just where you start from. Some players own boxes of
Kaspars and yet none of them play great. Some may be fixable, but many
are just dogs. In a sense, all truly great individual mouthpieces are
random acts of luck. I hate to admit it, but not every mouthpieces one
makes are home runs. Most may be darn good, but the magical ones just
happen. To complicate the matter...what is magic to one player is only
real good to another. Alas.

Ahh...the morning coffee is starting its own special magic!

Dave

> Elgenubi@-----.com 01/28/04 01:54 AM >>>
I'll be darned. So the old Buffet mouthpiece I got in 1960 with my
Evette
Schaeffer is a Chedeville blank. I'm bemused; when I was in college
and learned
that I should get a 'real' mouthpiece, I put it away, assumed it was
worthless, and never looked back. I bought a Borbeck 13 in about 1972,
and I believe
that turns out to be a 'Chediville blank, too.

I have a real question, though. How much unfinished is a 'blank'?
Does it
need the bore, the baffle, the face, or what else to be finished? How
did get
this custom get started of respectable companies making blanks, and
then
others finishing them? What then is so good about a Chedeville, or
some other
'blank'. Am I the only one confused?

Wayne Thompson

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Professor of Woodwinds
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Union University-1862
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Jackson, TN 38305

Office-731-661-5294
dmcclune@-----.edu
www.mcclunemouthpiece.com

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