 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: slgolda
Date: 2011-08-01 20:50
I have a custom-made Charles Bay clarinet mouthpiece, immaculate and from the estate of a Hollywood stunt coordinator/producer. It is engraved in script, "Custom made for C.O.Nielsen." It is also engraved in script, "MO-M, C122T." Does anyone know anything about these mouthpieces or who C.O. Nielsen might be? Thanks!
Post Edited (2011-08-01 20:56)
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Author: Ed
Date: 2011-08-02 00:46
The MO stood for medium open tip with the second M for medium length. Depending on the age, this can mean different things. I think that in the 60's-70's the MO was somewhere around 107-110. If I remember correctly, somewhere in the 80's Bay moved toward much larger tip openings, so an MO since that time is quite a bit larger.
Post Edited (2011-08-02 01:56)
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Author: William
Date: 2011-08-02 15:25
I have a custom Bay on which he inscribed, "Made for Wm Fuller, Dec 31, 1970 Ithica, NY". Back then, he was making "custom" mpcies for anyone who expressed any interest in his products--even ME!!! So, I wouldn't expect the person your mpc is dedicated to is an exception--but of interest, nonetheless. BTW, Charlie copied my Chicago Kaspar's facing on the one he made for me and it does not have the usual MO-M plus number that I've seen on his later ones. It has the big "Bay" sound but not the color of my Kaspar. However, it otherwise plays closely enough that I still carry it as my "backup" in case anything unfortunate should ever happen to my Kaspar. Hope this is of interest & help to you.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2011-08-04 16:20
Of course, if you are looking to "unload" this mouthpiece, drop me a note :-)
sarjientfinally@yahoo.com
...............Paul Aviles
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Author: William
Date: 2011-08-05 14:51
LOL--my former college professor used to like pointing out to me that Charlie made my mouthpiece on New Years Eve, wondering if it was "before the party......or after." He did measure the facing in comparison to my Chicago Kaspar (which I sent to him for accuracy) and it is absolutely a "carbon copy". I think that with Charles Bay--who studied mpc craftsmanship with the legendary Frank Kaspar--before or after the party would not have made any difference. Charles Bay is himself a legend in his own time--or, as some might muse, due to his remarkable personality--in his "own mind". It's always fun to be around him and he did produce a lot of great mouthpieces, one of which I am lucky to have and still play. Sorry, Paul, it will never be "unloaded"--but you will have first dib's if never becomes ever.....:>)
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2011-08-05 21:45
I tried a bunch of Bay bass clarinet mouthpieces way back in my student days of the 1970s, and played on a few of them (mostly MO-M facings) for maybe five years. In general they seemed to feel good at first (powerful and free-blowing) but as I discovered over time, the large tip openings that contributed to the 'good first impressions' also made the mouthpieces breathy and hard to control at lower dynamic levels, sort of taking away the ability to play in a nuanced way as required by orchestral-type performance. Now I play on much closer and somewhat longer facings than he typically applied.
Something that bass clarinetists should know and be grateful to Dr. Bay for, is that he pioneered (or at least made the public aware of and actively promoted) a number of mechanical advances that we now take for granted but didn't really exist then, such as more comfortably angled necks, adequate venting of the toneholes, and better keywork ergonomics in general. Back then I was playing on a Noblet bass with the standard (nearly horizontal) Leblanc neck angle, and sent the neck to him for re-angling -- this was when he would cut the customer-supplied neck and resolder it at a better angle, before he started selling entire new neck assemblies (which were and still are too expensive for me). The re-angled neck made a huge difference, and the sharper angle has since been adopted by nearly every instrument manufacturer. As far as I know, he did it first!
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