Author: sfalexi
Date: 2014-12-06 04:02
Alseg wrote:
> ONE MORE IMPORTANT THING--Have plenty of reeds, both stronger
> and softer, on hand to try on any new mouthpiece. You will
> never get to know how a mouthpiece plays unless you have good
> reeds that work well with the mouthpiece.
>
This will also give you an idea of how "reed friendly" the mouthpiece is. I'm not sure how to describe it, but I've got a crystal mouthpiece that sounds excellent with JUST the right reed on it. But I use a Grabner that sounds excellent with pretty much any reed. So I gravitate towards a reed-friendly mouthpiece over a reed-specific one simply because I don't like spending time working on reeds.
I've got a San Francisco right now, and my second mouthpiece (albeit over ten years ago) was a newer style gigliotti P (NOT from the otto link blank, although I did have an otto link gigliotti as well at one point).
Since they were so far apart, i couldn't tell you the difference. With the San Francisco, I really liked the ones I tried at clarinetfest, but the one I received in the mail just wasn't the same. It plays well, but just not as well as the ones at the festival did. Maybe it's cause I had more to choose from and the maker himself there to help guide me, but if you would like a san francisco, I'd try to contact him directly and have him help you choose. Not order willy-nilly from some site or store.
I also had a greg smith mouthpiece and it was fantastic. You've contacted good folks. But don't feel like you need to "upgrade" from an M15. And don't like a higher price sway you into thinking it's better. It just might end up that for you, the M15 is the best.
And lastly, give yourself (if you can) at least a week of trying the new mouthpiece. It does take a little bit to adjust to a new mouthpiece.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
|
|
The Clarinet BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
