Author: srattle
Date: 2010-03-10 02:22
Hi everyone,
I know the whole mouthpiece thing is really subjective, and that we're all trying to find our 'voice' through equipment, so I would like to just give me opinions on my experiences with Brad Behn's vintage mouthpieces.
A little history on me, and my equipment. I am a 26 year old, studying clarinet and free lancing in Berlin, Germany. I was also before in Oberlin, OH for studies. I would say that I am relatively successful as a chamber musician and a soloist, I have a decent amount of opportunities in europe, and I get the chance to perform with some of the most wonderful musicians in the world, from time to time.
I play Buffet clarinets (at the moment) Bb RC prestige, and A Vintage. I used to use an old Hawkins mouthpiece, that he made for me when I studied with him, and then after a Viotto french bore mouthpiece.
Anyway on to Brad's work. I originally bought one vintage mouthpiece from him, and then later bought another one as a backup (which turns out to be even better for me)
Each time I bought from him, I received 5 pieces to test, all completely different from eachother, but all very good. I tend to go towards a closed tip mouthpiece (my main one is .98mm) and have found really wonderful results from the pieces.
What I find from them is a wonderful amount of flexibility in sound. Very easy to manipulate the sound in all different ways. I feel now that I can make the colors that I want from the mouthpiece, but VERY easily. The effort towards sound production is minimal, very easy to produce the sound.
For some this might not be an advantage, since the pieces have relatively low resistance. I counter this by using a #4 reed (Rico Reserve Classic, also amazing discovery), and when I started using the mouthpiece there was quite a large 'learning curve' so to speak.
I had to learn how to blow a little differently, without pushing to make things work. I found at the beginning it was almost impossible to get a real pianissimo (something I pride myself on) as the response was just too easy for me. After working, and learning, now I can do everything I want on the mouthpiece, with ease, and more than I thought was possible on my old setups.
The sound, I find has a lot of character. I lean towards a speaking quality of sound, rather than the ultimate in darkness, and these pieces give that to me. They are very colorful, one being slightly darker and more stable, and the other being a little brighter, but also warmer is tone, and with some more flexibility inherent. I tend to use the more stable one as my main piece, but love playing on both of them.
They are very resonant, and I'm not sure how much of this is because of the material (which is clear to the eye is different from zinner rubber, and obviously adds a lot to the characteristics) or the way he has faced the piece, but it just rings, and vibrates like crazy.
Projection is NEVER a problem, except in the few circumstances when I don't want to be heard at all, and then I have to work a little more, but it's again no problem to also focus in the sound to blend better.
Articulation is just easy on these mouthpieces. My tongue is not fast, and these mouthpieces let me be at least at the best of my ability.
I would say the main thing that I love about these mouthpieces, is that I feel like they make me a better player on the whole. I find large leaps, articulation, pianissisisisisimos, fortissisisisisimos (I also love to play at both extremes of volume) are all just easy on these pieces. They hold very well at the extremes, but I wouldn't say that you can get to the extremes without the sound spreading at all. They don't do that naturally if you don't want them to. The pieces allow you to do what you want with them, and it's very easy to do what you want, but they don't force you to play a certain way.
The only thing I have found to be a problem with the mouthpieces is that because the material is quite soft, I have damaged on of the tips with my teeth once. It made only a little difference to the playing, but after sending it back to Brad for free, he expertly repaired it, and it is as good as new. I just have to be careful.
I can't recommend these mouthpieces enough. I've been playing them for over a year now, and I can safely say that I have grown leaps and bounds because of what these mouthpieces allowed me to do. The price tag is high, but it's the best money I've ever spent on the clarinet. And I can't imagine needing to buy another mouthpiece for a long time, or ever.
by the way, I have no affiliation with Brad Behn other than a loyal customer, and I receive nothing for writing this, I just feel that people should try these mouthpieces.
Sacha Rattle
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