Klarinet Archive - Posting 000053.txt from 2009/03
From: joshua stein <jstein53@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Mouthpiece-Inspired Madness
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:42:26 -0400
Bechi,
You should go to a store where they a large selection of mouth pieces.
Good luck,
Josh
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bechi" <bechi@-----.net>
To: <klarinet@-----.org>
Sent: Monday, March 09, 2009 11:49 AM
Subject: [kl] Mouthpiece-Inspired Madness
I've been wanting to buy a new mouthpiece for quite some time now.
Hell! Maybe even TWO new mouthpieces just for the sheer joy of it!
My problem is that I'm just completely and utterly intimidated by the
prospect of finding one, let alone two! I've been playing for about 2
years now after a 20 year hiatus so I think my embouchure has more or
less reasonable "settled", although I'm sure that it's always a work
in progress.
My current set up is a Selmer 10S with the HS* mouthpiece my high
school band director's wife insisted I play, Legere Quebec-cut (3¼)
and Vandoren 56 Rue Lepic (3½) reeds, Rovner Eddie Daniels and Bois
Delrin ligatures. I'm not 100% sure what I'm talking about when using
lingo, but I believe I'm looking for a mouthpiece that is free and
easy blowing (I tend to COMPLETELY lose my embouchure after a few
hours of playing) and that can help tune the A & B just under the
altissimo register which are horrifically sharp for me even when
almost everything else is moderately in tune.
So far, so good. Here's the part where I want to pull the covers over
my head and hide - there's only a bazillion mouthpieces out there,
each one coming in multiple flavors, and from what I hear, further
variations between each individual representative of each flavor! I'm
prepared to taste-test a dozen or so candidates to find *the one* (or
two!), but just finding a reasonable sample to start with seems
impossible! My latest thought is perhaps limiting myself to a few
samples from Walter Grabner's and Morrie Backun's offerings; my
rationale being that being hand crafted, there will be no "klunkers"
per se, each mouthpiece either works with me and my horn or it doesn't
(chances are it's not just a bad representative of that particular
mouthpiece). Does that make sense? If so, would test-driving one of
each model I'm interested in be sufficient to start? Would it then be
necessary to try 2 or 3 additional samples of each "finalist"?
Help!
Thanks,
Bechi
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