Author: Tom Puwalski
Date: 2006-03-10 21:55
I can tell you why someone charges 3-4 times the cost of a zinner blank because some machine faced mouthpieces are better quality than some of the "hand faced" custom models that are offered by writters on this list. A good quality curve of a zinner blank is going to sound pretty good, even if a monkey is doing the facing, if the facing curve is a good, does it really matter how it gets there?
I've played a Viotto CG2 mouthpiece for the last few years, it was esentially a copy of a Zinner that was hand faced by johann Berger. The Viotto plays great, the Berger plays great (I have never seen a better refacing job than this man could do, these facings are true art work) . Both of those mouthieces in MY opinion played better than any Zinner based mouthpiece done in the USA, by anyone, period. Recently I tried the Backun mouthpieces and these right in the mix of the two previously mentioned mouthpieces. The blank isn't zinner it has a slightly different color than the zinner, but a lovely color (colour) juat the same. These play really great, I've sat and played all the different facings with reeds that worked on them. They have a consistant sound over all the facing ranges. They were very consistant between the same facings. I also had the chance at peabody 2 weeks ago to hear some area "professionals" trying backun mouthpieces, and let me tell you, the way some people try equiptment would scare me if I were manufacturing anything that had to do with the clarinet. if you want to do it the "wrong" way here's how to do that.
A. pull out the reed you've stretched one to many concerts out of. It might have sounded good last week but it doesn't now, especially in the small class room that you're attempting to put "concert hall solo volume" right now.
B. Put on the new mouthiece, don't bother to grease the cork
C. take the beat up, decaying carcus of a reed hold it on the mouthpiece with your thumb, don't bother with the ligature
d. blow any combination of 5-6 left hand notes, shake your head, pronounce the mouthpiece, the most awsome thing ever invented or call it crap, it doesn't matter because you don't know.
E. Repeat the above. I've seen it with mouthpieces, ligature, bells, barrels and clarinets.
My only complaint about Backun stuff is, sometime I go out on a gig or a concert and I have people come up to compliment my performance, and inevitably if it is a clarinetist, they look at my backun barrel and my zebra wood bell on my yamaha Sev, and they think and sometimes tell me that they think I sounded great becuase of the stuff I was playing on. I did help a little, like I did practice alot, you know.
I just heard a recording of an Itallian clarinetist on an all Cavallini CD, who played buffet RC, and a Vandoren mouthpiece, and damn he sounded really good. And to think he didn't have a Kaspar, or a mouthpiece that was touched by someone in the same room as a kaspar, or a mouthpiece that was refaced by someone who studied with a student of a student of Robert Marcellus.
Tom Puwalski, former soloist with the US Army Field Band, Clarinetist with Lox&Vodka, and Author of "The Clarinetist's Guide to Klezmer"and most recently by the order of the wizard of Oz, for supreme intelligence, a Masters in Clarinet performance
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