 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: bob gardner
Date: 2000-12-07 03:19
I'm in the market for a new mp for my bass. Wanted to check with you to see what you feel is the best.
thanks
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Author: Willie
Date: 2000-12-07 04:33
For my contra, my tenor sax and my daughter's bass we have had good results with the Selmer C. However out at the college I tried a little Bundy bass that had a Brillhart on it and it sounded fantastic. I'm not sure what model Brillhart it was but it was also the easiest blowing horn I've tried in many moons.
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Author: David Spiegelthal
Date: 2000-12-07 13:52
Try Roger Garrett --- his bass clarinetmouthpieces are both excellent and inexpensive (I own two of them): rgarrett@titan.iwu.edu I also like the Pomarico crystal bass clarinet mouthpiece (they are a Sneezy sponsor).
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2000-12-07 17:00
Everett Matson will reface a new Selmer C*, matching the one he made for the BC player in the Philadelphia Orchestra. The one he fixed for me is the easiest playing bass mouthpiece I've ever tried, with a perfectly even scale. My Opperman has a little bit better sound, but is not as easy to play.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Francesca
Date: 2000-12-07 21:57
I use a Hite mouthpiece with Glotin reeds. It was an improvement from the Vandoren B45. (for me anyway)
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Author: Pat
Date: 2000-12-08 02:28
I have a selmer C doulbe star for my bass. My bass teacher Eddie Palanker told me to try 3 like a selmer c star, c doulbe-star, and c 85 115 (i think that was the third. I wound up with a good batch and it was down to the c double and c85. I found those two were extremly close and found that that the double star was a little bit warmer than the 85. Tunning on those mouthpieces are pretty good. As for reeds, i am lazy and do little work with bass reeds and use rico grand concert size 4. They make a good sound and require little to no adjustment out of the box. But that is what I use some one else here might differ from me.
pat
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Author: Noah Philip Alweiss
Date: 2000-12-08 08:13
Hey guys my name is noah and a student at the Eastman School of Music
I've tried bunch of bass clar. mouthpieces( including all of the Vandorens, Richard Hawkins) in the past couple of months
with a new buffet bass- prestige.
I enjoyed the Richard Hawkins mouthpiece the most on bass as well as on Bb soprano. You won't have to work as hard as you do for the Vandorens to achieve a focused, and extremely dark sound.
Good Luck
-Noah
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Author: Alec Thigpen
Date: 2000-12-08 17:17
I have a Buffett Prestige 1193 and use a Bay MO-M mouthpiece. I love it and although I haven't tried but two others, it is by far better than my Selmer C* or the Morgan, which I also liked pretty well. I think you should make an attempt to try at least a couple of the Bay mouthpieces. The horn resonates nicely with the Bay, and I have a great response in the altissimo register.
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2000-12-08 17:20
Pat -
I'd trust Ed Planaker on anything. He's a fabulous BC player and has written a number of articles for the Clarinet magazine on repertoire and auditions that are absolutely essential reading.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Dave Spiegelthal
Date: 2000-12-08 17:52
Ken,
I'm really not qualified to disagree with you or any full-time professional player, but as a long-time (though now former) Maryland resident and bass clarinetist, I've heard the Baltimore Symphony and their bass clarinetist Ed Palanker (correct spelling, I believe) many times over the years. I've always come away feeling that, when I can actually HEAR him, he sounds pretty good, but at every live performance and in every recording of the orchestra I've heard, he just doesn't play out enough -- too quiet! I'm sure he's wonderful in chamber settings, but in my humble and worthless opinion, he doesn't play with enough cojones for a symphony player. Bass clarinets were meant to be HEARD in orchestras -- not just blend in (usually).
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2000-12-08 21:21
Dave -
You're right on the spelling of Palanker. My fingers ran away from my brain.
My impression of his playing is based on several solo and ensemble performances at ClarinetFest a couple of years ago, where he just bowled me over. His playing there had all the power in the world, as well as great elegance and finesse.
I haven't heard him in the orchestra, but in my relatively limited orchestral BC playing (Franck Symphony) and a lot of contra-alto and contrabass playing in the West Point band, I know that if the conductor can hear the BC separately, you get told to play softer. If he seems barely audible in the orchestra, I think that, at the Baltimore SO level, he's giving what the conductor wants.
Oh, and by the way, I'm not a full time professional player. I'm a lawyer by trade and a musician by love.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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Author: C. Hogue
Date: 2000-12-09 01:45
I've been using a C* for a few months but I recently read a post here on Sneezy that claimed good ole Bundy 3 mps weren't so bad. Now a Bundy 3 came with my well-used bass, and thinking it was a piece-of-junk mp, I had thrown it into the box where I keep my woodwind flosom. Recently I dug it out, cleaned it up, and tried it with my Rovner dark lig. I was amazed at the darker, richer sound I got out of that old Bundy 3 compared to my expensive new C*. And I don't squeak anymore when I accent the lowest chalmeau notes. Who knew?
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Author: Willie
Date: 2000-12-09 02:53
Thats true, but in the recording studio, he may have been at the mercy of the studio mixing crew who were most probably guitar players or drummers.
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Author: Pat
Date: 2000-12-10 03:16
To Ken and Dave:
I work at the meyerhoff and have heard many changes ever since Termikonov has come to Baltimore. I hear Palanker much better. Termikonov has told him to bring out more sound than what he is use to playing and he is loving it too. Last season I heard them reherse shostakovich 13 (Babi yar, I forgot the number) and he was walling away. This season, they played copland symphonie as well as mahler 1. I could hear him loud and clear. He is a great teacher and a great man. It is always cool to have a lesson with him. If anyone ever gets to hear the Baltimore symphony now with Termikonov, you will enjoy the concert. At least in my opinion.
pat
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Author: Dave Spiegelthal
Date: 2000-12-11 15:12
Pat,
Thanks for the good news! I'll make sure to give the Bawlmer Symphony another listen next time they do something with a lot of bass clarinet, and maybe this time I'll hear the real Ed Palanker do his thing. I guess I hadn't considered the possibility of previous conductors subduing the sound of the player ---- although I tend to play pretty strong on bass clarinet, I've rarely been told to tone down (just lucky, I guess, but on the other hand I'm certainly not playing in orchestras of the caliber of Baltimore, either). There are a few other major-symphony bass clarinetists who, IMHO, are not prominent enough, one of whom being our local National Symphony's Larry Bocaner. Maybe I'm just brainwashed by the slogan I and my fellow low-clarinetists in high school used to live by: "Every note's a solo".
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Author: Daniel
Date: 2000-12-12 04:09
My personal favorite in the way of Bass mouthpieces is Rick Sayre's K-13 model. His refaced Selmer C*'s are okay too. But his K-13 is the closest thing to a Kapar bass mouthpiece i've ever played.
Bay's bass mouthpieces are the same as his clarinet mouthpieces. Too hollow and bright (for my tastes). They don't feel like bass clarinet mouthpieces. Clark Fobes' bass mouthpieces are nice, but for me the three that i tried didn't have the variety of colours. They articulated nicely though.
I've never met a Vandoren i liked. Bass or otherwise.
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