Author: Don Gross
Date: 2007-07-31 16:15
Having had Morrie overhaul both my Buffet R-13 Bb and A clarinets, and having him personally select cocobola barrels for them while they were in the shop, needless to say I was thrilled when I got an appointment to visit him and Joel when they were in Los Angeles a couple years ago. In the interim I had also purchased "factory second" bells for both instruments. When I first tried out Morrie's mpcs (sadly I can't remember the exact model I purchased), I was thrilled. They were, in a word, "powerful." I'll let Dan Leeson figure that one out. Many of my colleagues, both amateur and professional, in LA also bought them.
After about a year, several of us grew tired not being able to achieve the smoothness in dynamics that we wanted. It was sort of like you got to a certain dynamic level and the "afterburners" kicked in. As an overage (67) clarinet student at Cal State Los Angeles, I still am doing juries. Several of the judges noted that my sound was really over the top and that the soft passages were suffering. I sold my Backun mpc to a jazz clarinet student at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts who loves it, went back to my Richard Hawkins "B" facing mpc, and never looked back.
Your mileage may vary.
Don
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