Klarinet Archive - Posting 000342.txt from 2006/04

From: "Ted Casher" <tedcasher@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Arnold Brilhart
Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 12:39:22 -0400

Ted Casher here: The white plastic was called "Tonalin", and had a sweet
sound. They were deemed desirable in their day. However, the material was
a softer compound than the black mouthpiece, called "Ebolin." As a result,
most of the Tonalin players wound up putting their teeth thru the tip!

Benny Carter used one on his alto for a long time. In his late eighties, he
bit through the tip, and had a terrible time finding a new mouthpiece!

The late Al Sears, the original honking tenor player, used one of those
Tonalin mpces as well.

There is a new white mpce out for sax, made by Lamberson---tenorist Tim
Price is using one. It is made of some kind of white plastic/nylon
material. However, it costs an arm and a leg. Don't know if Lamberson has
tooled up for clarinet.

I just got my hands on a vintage Brilhart Personaline clarinet mpce, made of
black plastic, with a reinforced tip. It is a S-6. It has a beautiful
core, good intonation, and maintains flexibility throughout my jazz and
klezmer sound. It took me 2 weeks to get used to the short facing, but now
I love it! I am using an Optima ligature, and #3 Rigotti Gold reeds with
it. Altogether a successful experience.

There are some of these mpces around. One has to find a music store that
has been in business for many years, and ask to go thru their junk
drawer/vintage case, etc....
----- Original Message -----
From: "Adam Michlin" <amichlin@-----.com>
To: <klarinet@-----.org>
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 8:30 AM
Subject: Re: [kl] Arnold Brilhart

>I think the early Brilhart white saxophone mouthpieces mouthpieces were
>made of a synthetic material which was not particularly durable, problems
>with brittleness. I believe both Charlie Parker and Stan Getz played at one
>time on such mouthpieces and, as such, they are still sought after by
>collectors and players (of course, what kind of mouthpiece *didn't* Charlie
>Parker play on?). Their value has probably appreciated as much due the
>scarcity of good condition specimens as anything else. It would seem likely
>that the same durability problem existed with the white clarinet
>mouthpieces.
>
> -Adam
>
> At 06:02 AM 4/25/2006, Arthur Acheson wrote:
>>Although a number of top British jazz and big band players used
>>Brilharts, I found the m/p's very inconsistent, and could never find
>>one I liked.
>>Probably in the 50's Brilhart manufactured m/p's in England. As is
>>the way of the world, the English version was fetching high prices in
>>USA and the USA model was very highly sought after in Britain, go
>>figure!
>>AA
>
>
>
>
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