 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: andrewcsq
Date: 2014-05-30 05:47
Recently I had started a thread about contacting Mr Behn, and he promptly contacted me (I had feared my email had been lost to the twilight of spam folders), leading to the purchase of a Behn Artist Series mouthpiece
I'm a student clarinettist, not a pro or even close to it by any means. I've been learning the clarinet for a couple of years now, and that level of experience frames my opinion (the importance, validity, and lack thereof).
Throughout the whole transaction, Mr Behn was very kind and detailed in answering my questions, regarding the design of his mouthpiece and the suitability of tip openings to playing styles (eventually, I did take his advice and settle on a 1.05 tip opening), without being excessively vague, or getting too technical about things.
There was a moment of panic when the USPS tracking service reported that the package had been scheduled for a late delivery due to 'damage' (the postal services of my country are not known to be kind or careful), but thankfully Mr Behn had packed the mouthpiece inside a flat rate box, and then taken that flat rate box and packed it into a padded envelope. In the even, the padded envelope had been torn, but the box itself had been in perfect order (and thus the mouthpiece was undamaged).
The damage was cosmetic, limited to the outer padded envelope, without affecting the box inside at all. Thanks so much for the meticulous packing of the mouthpiece.
As for the mouthpiece itself, it is a revelation compared to the B40Lyre I was previously using. Crisp articulation and easy response. The tone is smooth and round, neither stuffy nor excessively brilliant, an excellent mouthpiece all around.
The whole process of purchase has been a pleasure, even when (for a moment) it looked like something bad may have happened to the piece.
As usual, I'm not being paid to write this, and have no financial affiliation to Mr Behn (it would be strange to have a financial affiliation to a mouthpiece maker half a world away...) and am just a happy customer
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Author: andrewcsq
Date: 2014-05-30 12:07
Thanks for the tip on the reeds! I'll be sure to run the mouthpiece through the full gamut of reeds that are locally available!
The artist series mouthpiece I received is made with Behn Rod Rubber II, I believe. Though I am of the personal, subjective and totally non-scientific (oh man please let's not get too far down this road) opinion that the material matters less than the design of the mouthpiece, and that the chief advantage of the Artist series made with Behn rod rubber to Mr Behn's own internal specifications is that they have a different internal geometry to zinner blanks.
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Author: nbclarinet
Date: 2014-05-30 20:37
Last year I also bought a mouthpiece from Mr. Behn. Similarly, I found that he was wonderful to work with...very helpful and informative.
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Author: andrewcsq
Date: 2014-06-03 06:00
Just had a lesson with my private tutor, and he couldn't stop trying my new mouthpiece! Decades ago he bought a B40 which had the most amazing and round sound (I've tried it, it truly is superlative!) but had horrible intonation across the board. The Behn artist series mouthpiece I've tried reminded him so much of that mouthpiece (but with really good intonation) that he asked me about the mouthpiece and is probably checking out Mr Behn's website as I'm writing this
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