 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Bruno
Date: 2014-01-31 21:03
If you had a choice between a good mouthpiece with a poor clarinet, OR, a good clarinet with a cheap mouthpiece, which of the two combinations do you think it would be best to choose?
(This is only an intellectual exercise - I am not involved in having to make such a decision.)
bruno>
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Author: Ursa
Date: 2014-01-31 21:20
Give me a good mouthpiece on a poor clarinet any day. An intrepid player can often get acceptable results with a crummy clarinet, but not with a bad mouthpiece.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2014-01-31 21:54
Good clarinet with a cheap (but playable) mouthpiece - you can always get a better mouthpiece later on.
This is what Buffet do.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Bruno
Date: 2014-01-31 17:13
Quote: Author: rtmyth (---.lightspeed.snantx.sbcglobal.net - (AT&T U-verse) San Antonio, TX United States)
Date: 2014-01-31 21:27
good and good, whatever that means
richard smith"
If you don't know what that means, how can we? 
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Author: Bruno
Date: 2014-01-31 22:16
Quote: Author: Chris P (---.dynamic.dsl.as9105.com - (Tiscali UK Limited) Brighton, B6 United Kingdom)
Date: 2014-01-31 21:54
Good clarinet with a cheap (but playable) mouthpiece - you can always get a better mouthpiece later on.
This is what Buffet do.
Chris.
What the future can provide doesn't come into the survey. Make your choice on the basis of what comes out the bell with each of the setups.
B>
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2014-01-31 22:36
I'll stick with a good clarinet with a cheap mouthpiece.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: John Peacock
Date: 2014-01-31 22:36
The fraction of mouthpieces that are really good seems much lower than the fraction of instruments that are really good - assuming you avoid cheap junk in either case. If my instruments were stolen but I kept my mouthpiece, I'd be confident of being able to be back in action in the usual fashion within a few weeks. But if the mouthpiece was lost, I'd be really concerned. I've spent many hours trying to find a spare that I like as much as my main one, but never succeeded.
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Author: joe423
Date: 2014-01-31 19:46
Good mouthpiece with a poor clarinet. You can make the clarinet playable if in poor condition and make it sound decent.
1975 Buffet R13 Bb Clarinet
1968 Buffet R13 A Clarinet
Pyne Clarion Mouthpiece
Vandoren V12 3.5 Reeds
Vandoren Optimum Ligature
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Author: TJTG
Date: 2014-02-01 01:06
Good mouthpiece and poor clarinet.
I find it unnerving people equate "good" mouthpieces with ca$h
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Author: Wes
Date: 2014-01-31 20:55
Good clarinet with a poor mouthpiece as I can reface and modify the mouthpiece easier than I can make a CSO into a Buffet Prestige.
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Author: gkern
Date: 2014-01-31 21:07
Define poor clarinet for me, please? Even some CSOs are playable with fairly good intonation.
Given a typical POS or CSO, give me a cheap mouthpiece, but...
Gary K
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Author: Bruno
Date: 2014-01-31 22:26
Some posters are missing the point. It's not about modifying a mouthpiece or a clarinet to make the suggested combinations irrelevant, it's about which element of the two has the greatest influence on the sound that comes out of the bell. It's not a trick question.
Maybe I should have said, "If you were limited to playing either this or that, which would produce the more acceptable sound?"
B>
P.S. I would choose a lousy clarinet with an excellent mouthpiece hands down because I believe that the mouthpiece has a greater influence on the sound of a setup than the clarinet does.
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Author: sbrodt54
Date: 2014-02-01 03:56
Good mouthpiece with a poor clarinet. With a poor mouthpiece I couldn't get even an open G to sound, with a poor clarinet I can at least get one note to play beautifully!
Scott Brodt
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Author: sbrodt54
Date: 2014-02-01 04:46
Point made.
A 14 year old male just left my shop, he had been playing a used Bundy alto sax for 4 years. His parents just bought him a brand new orange sax, the brand that starts with the letter “C”. He put his reed on the mouthpiece (both “C" brand) and got nothing but a horrid squeak.
I gave him my bench test mouthpiece and reed (Yamaha 4C piece) to play and he got out 12 notes. Nothing below D worked because the sax is junk, even new it’s still new junk but with a real mouthpiece he got a lot more than any sax with a “C” brand mouthpiece!
This didn’t prove too much because there was no separate test for the “C” brand reed vs Rico reed but that mouthpiece was built to no specifications known to civilized man.
Scott Brodt
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2014-02-01 06:59
You said "poor clarinet" and "cheap mouthpiece", so I would go with a good clarinet and a cheap but excellent mouthpiece, since a "cheap" mouthpeice is not necessarily "poor" and can be very good. A "poor" clarinet I assume would mean one with terrible intoantion, sound, response, etc. but I've tried some "cheap" mouthpieces that were far better than some expensive mouthpieces. For the same reason, I'd choose an excellent but cheap clarinet with an excellent mouthpiece over an excellent clarinet with an awful mouthpiece that is mostly unplayable, regardless of how much it costs.
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Author: Garth Libre
Date: 2014-02-02 07:56
Number one : Good reed
Number two: Good mouthpiece
Number three: Good horn
Number four: Good thumbrest
Number five: Good music stand
Number six: Good ligature
Garth, 305-981-4705. garthlibre@yahoo.com
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Author: LJBraaten
Date: 2014-02-02 05:25
good mouthpiece on a low quality but playable clarinet.
Laurie (he/him)
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2014-02-02 19:34
Really depends on how "bad" either one is. If the clarinet is really bad it won't play in tune. notes won't come out and leak and squeak. If it's just not a really good clarinet but plays OK I'd prefer a good mouthpiece.
ESP eddiesclarinet.com
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