Klarinet Archive - Posting 000057.txt from 2005/10

From: X-MailScanner-tom.henson@-----.com
Subj: RE: [kl] Re: Kaspar Mouthpiece with Solid Silver Facing
Date: Wed, 05 Oct 2005 16:33:55 -0400

Tim,

I was guessing that it was solid silver by the color and the way it had
tarnished somewhat, but after your post, would be inclined to think it
must be a silver alloy because it does not appear to be either soft or
malleable. I don't think that it is nickel silver though as this
generally takes on a golden or slightly yellow color with age. The metal
facing is silver in color and had some typical black tarnish on it, but
how hard it is I don't know.=20

I don't think Kaspar would have used something as soft as pure silver as
that would be counter to what he was attempting to do in making a metal
facing that was more permanent perhaps. The truth is we may never know
what he was trying to achieve by making it this way. That is why I was
so curious if anyone else has seen anything like this and it sounds like
a few have. Unless of course, he simply wanted to experiment with the
way that the reed vibrated against this material. But the sound it
produces does not seem that much different than a solid rubber version.
You can however feel a difference when playing on it. It produces very
crisp and easy articulation. I also had to move the rubber mouthpiece
patch down below the metal portion of the tip as I found it dulled the
sound and response.=20

What blows me away is how perfectly he matched the metal facing to the
rubber, as if it were always that way. There are no appreciable gaps
between the metal and rubber and it is air tight with no leaks. Very
close tolerances and must have taken a very talented person to make it.
Keep in mind that not only is tip silver, but down to part of the baffle
as well from the tip, both inside and out on the beak by maybe 1/4 of an
inch. The rails and the sides of the rails also. So it is not just a
piece of metal sitting on top of the rubber, but sitting down in the
interior as well.

I also found out that Kaspar used an asymmetrical facing on his
mouthpieces as the norm from some searching on the Internet, and Forest
confirmed this.

There is still so much that is not known, but did find it interesting
that others have seen some examples of his experiments. Being that mine
is a Cicero, it must have been made by the nephew of Frank L Kaspar. By
the way, his great grandson has been selling some of Frank L's personal
collection on eBay recently. Some interesting items, some valuable, some
not that much.

Tom Henson=20

<< Tim Roberts said:

I would think it would be significantly EASIER to reface. Silver is
much softer than plastic or hard rubber. In fact, I'm somewhat
surprised it would be able to hold its shape well enough to act as a
clarinet mouthpiece for very long. >>

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