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Re: Kasper tip openings

Author: D Dow
Date: 2004-07-06 17:56

I have not had the positive experience with Kasper facings as others...I have very little respect for the facing material on the Cicero Kaspars which is a grade of rubbber which tends to fall apart and erode considerably. There is also among the 11 facings a far greater tendency towards divergence which if one considers the Kaspars to the better of consistency of the finer mouthpiece makers to be disconcerting. As to the Ann Arbor Kaspars I have the best and highest regards. One must remember the Kaspars are also somewhat of a mix between a Chedeville and a somewhat more open bore sounding piece...the father was also from Moravia so the idea that his ideas were "American" is a bit far fetched. In fact much of his ideas came from European orchestal players of the 30s and can be directly attributed to the more open mouthpiece bore which was popular in France and Switzerland. So in some ways the Chediville is still the role model with these pieces....

However, among the finer of the Kaspars is a wonderful depth of sonority and excellent 12ths...the danger of Kaspar design is a slight tendency towards hootiness in the low register, especially in the lower chalumeau...this can attributed to the curve of the baffle and the increment opening towards the barrel. However, these are super pieces, and if you have a very good Kaspar you are really on to something.

In recent years Ebay has been the only source of these pieces, but alas the prices are a bit too high in my opinion when there are such great mouthpieces makers like Grabner, Smith and Fobes about. I also think that in some regards the material of the Kaspars seemed to move and even change quicker than alot of others. I have a few very bad Kaspars in my case and feel they are just too oxidated to revive. They are kept mainly for nostalgia which is a pretty poor reasonl.

The finest sounding examples of Kaspar's are any Marcellus record.. I don't seem to see so many about in Pricipal clarinet players cases as before...especially when you consider how fragile such an older material can become.

David Dow

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