 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: John Peacock
Date: 2009-04-14 21:42
I wanted to post a few words of praise for Ramon Wodkowski's skill in refacing mouthpieces. Of American origin, but now based in London, he does a superb job of taking your favourite mouthpiece and refacing another one to have a lay that is very similar - but better, in that everything is completely symmetric. He seems to be much in demand from a variety of top professionals, but is very happy to help a mere amateur. I'm playing one
of his products now, and am very pleased: it's far superior to anything I've found in many hours blowing what feels like the entire stock of Howarths. He has a website (basic at present, but with contact details: www dot ramonwodkowski dot com).
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2009-04-14 22:18
John -
Tell Ramon Wodkowski he should replace the photo on his site http://www.ramonwodkowski.com/ with one of an actual player. This one makes the first-day-beginner's mistake of having his fingers on the wrong keys.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Jon P
Date: 2009-04-15 10:31
Just to add to this praise....I've recently had a collection of original pre war Boosey & Hawkes 1010 mouthpieces refaced by Ramon, and they have turned out to be fantastic.
I've had various done over the last couples of years, both modern mouthpieces and vintage ones. They all work well, though the vintage ones give me the sound I'm looking for. I've been using an old pre war mouthpiece that Ramon refaced for the past year now, with great results. I had thought I couldn't get better than that. I recently acquired a few others - very similar-looking to my own. I asked Ramon to fix them, and they are even better. He really knows what he's doing with vintage facings...my own interest is in the sound/playing of British players of the pre war era, and Ramon has records of facings used by several leading players of that era. Two of my new mouthpieces have a facing similar to that of Frederick Thurston, for example. It works a treat with my English bore Rossi - very clear and intense. The other one he did for my was a copy of my own, on another old Boosey mouthpiece... its very free blowing and easy to play, with great projection...and like all his mouthpieces, its easy with reeds. The precise nature of his work means that I no longer have to go through boxes and boxes of reeds to find one that works. Its a much easier life now. :-) see website above to contact him.
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Author: graham
Date: 2009-04-15 14:40
Hi Ken
How do you know that isn't Ramon himself.........?
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2009-04-15 15:00
graham wrote:
> How do you know that isn't Ramon himself.........?
We don't - for sure - but we do notice that the posting IP of Ramon and the posting IP of Mr. Peacock are completely different. It is unusual, however, that the first post of a BBoarder is in praise of someone. We (the moderators) do take note of such things.
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Author: John Peacock
Date: 2009-04-15 23:11
I suppose I can't easily convince a skeptic that I am not an imposter. All I can say is that you can google my name and verify that a clarinettist of that name does exist - and the moderator can check that the email on my professional web page matches.
As to praise being an unusual first post, this perhaps reflects my delight in having found a good service for something that is so important, and thinking that others might benefit. I may add personal views about clarinettery in due course, but it's not clear that people will find these so interesting.
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Author: graham
Date: 2009-04-16 06:06
I meant of course the photograph! plus my comment wasn't intended to be taken all that seriously. I know Ramon and he wouldn't puff himself in any under hand way.
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Author: claaaaaarinet!!!!
Date: 2009-04-16 23:26
I'm sure that the picture on Ramon's website with the fingers in the "wrong" position is for laughs.
The key to good clarinet playing (and life, after all) is to take a deep breath and relax....
Post Edited (2009-04-16 23:33)
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