Klarinet Archive - Posting 000121.txt from 2005/10

From: "David McClune" <dmcclune@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] Brad Behn
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 14:24:00 -0400

From the stories I have heard....When the Chedeville factory was sold to
Glotin, the machines were sold, but the old men who knew how everything
worked...retired and shared none of their knowledge! The rubber used
was simply what was available to them at the time. The formula for the
making of that rubber causes cancer or something terrible, so it cannot
be made in the US,...EPA and everything.

My thought on mouthpieces is to take what is available and MAKE it
work. A blank for me is just a starting point. Matsen liked old
Selmers because the internal dimensions were small, allowing him to file
away the chamber into shapes he preferred.

The old Charles Chedevilles, which are sold all the time on e-bay, are
a pain to work on. They take a great deal of filing to enlarge the
chamber to contemporary standards. Then you face them, and rework the
chamber even more trying to refine the tone and response to an
acceptable level.

My job as with Brad, Walter and many others, it to accept the
mouthpiece sent to us and rework them as well as we can, so WE like how
they play. You might not love it, but we make sure that WE could play
on it and enjoy the sound. That might explain why we 'refacers'
sometimes get mouthpieces worked on by others. We admire the work, yet
redo it to our biases. Sometimes customers like what we do...and
sometimes not.

Hey, the mouthpiece is still a only a tool and a means to an end; NOT
the end in itself.

Now it is time to eat lunch and walk the dog. Owning a 110 pound
Newfoundland changes your life!

Dave

Dr. David McClune
Professor of Woodwinds
Director of Bands
Union University-1862
1050 Union University Drive
Jackson, TN 38305

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

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org