The Clarinet BBoard

Behn Mouthpiece

Author: gwie  Date:   2014-04-19 09:38 I went on a mouthpiece safari recently. For the better part of fourteen years or so, I've played on close tip mouthpieces with fairly stiff reeds (4.5) to achieve the sound that I prefer. After a series of concerts last summer for a chamber music festival, I realized that I was experiencing some fatigue that didn't surface before back in graduate school and during most of my early career. After listening to recordings of my playing and looking at video recordings of my practice and rehearsal, I came to conclude that I was doing far too much work with my facial muscles to sustain the sound that I wanted to produce with my current setup. Over the past half year, I've spent quite a sum acquiring (or borrowing from colleagues) a whole range of reeds in many strengths and many mouthpieces to explore what else I could play on. It was very helpful seeing the diversity of setups here on the Clarinet BBoard and I had the opportunity to test quite a few setups in excellent rehearsal and concert conditions. I tried a range of models in many brands/makers, including Vandoren, Rico, Grabner, Fobes, Backun, Pyne, Hawkins, PlayEasy, Gennusa, Woodwind Co., and others. Surprisingly, I found that I could reasonably play on just about all of the setups I tried, ranging from 4.5 reeds on close facings (.95) to 2.5 reeds on some of the extreme open facings (1.2 and above). As long as I matched an appropriate strength reed and made the required embouchure adjustments, they worked. However, not every setup allowed me to create the range of tone colors I was interested in making for the playing that I do, which is almost entirely chamber music these days (and very little orchestra and no band). My current point of comparison for all of these is a vintage Chedeville (from the Lelandais period) mouthpiece, with a responsive and reed-friendly facing from an experienced maker. Acquired last year, I am able to play on it with a regular strength 4 reed and it does everything that I want...however I've had some close calls with it at lessons and rehearsals (with people around who aren't quite as careful) and I would be heartbroken if it were damaged or lost. No, I'm not selling it. :P I admit I was hesitant to try Brad's mouthpieces because of sticker shock, even going so far as to skip his booth at ClarinetFest. Well that was a stupendously dumb move on my part! Throughout the process of finding a new mouthpiece, my correspondence with Brad has been incredibly detailed and extremely helpful. Despite his enormously busy schedule, he never failed to provide me with the information I asked for and the trial process went very smoothly. I was blown away by the responsiveness and control of his Artist Collection mouthpieces. I tried the .98 facing with 3-1/2 reeds and the 1.05 facing with 3 reeds and was delighted to obtain very similar results in playability and tone production. I ended up with the .98 facing since I was able to achieve just slightly more density in my tone, especially at loud dynamics. I've also found that his setting of the mouthpiece face at 0 degrees to the clarinet body has made it more comfortable for me to play. I tried his suggested AW Reeds (302 version) in strength 3.5 and they worked very well for me, although Vandoren V12 4.0 and Rico Reserve Classic 4.0 also work well and are cheaper to buy. Okay, so I did have one minor issue. My Brancher ligatures did not fit on Brad's Artist Collection mouthpieces, which have slightly larger than normal bodies. I ended up taking a pair of pliers to a new Bonade inverted ligature, which ended up working very well. Anyhow, I've spent most of the last two weeks playing only the Behn Artist Collection mouthpiece, and couldn't be happier with the results. It really is an equal match for my vintage mouthpiece! For me, it was well worth the cost to acquire a mouthpiece that fulfills all my requirements. Thanks Brad, for a wonderful mouthpiece and seriously awesome customer service. I'm looking forward to trying your student-level mouthpieces with some of my new kids soon! Post Edited (2014-04-19 09:40)

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Re: Behn Mouthpiece

Author: gwie  Date:   2015-04-13 12:34 Just an update a year later. I've actually handed my vintage mouthpieces to a colleague for his fun and experimentation (he is an instrument builder and mouthpiece maker/restorer), as I stopped playing on them entirely. After not forcing myself so hard to play a stiff reed, the results we're really positive so I've actually come down in reed strength again to the 3.5-3.5+ range, now mostly Vandoren V12 on my Behn Artist (.98 facing). It works just as well as my previous setup and I don't have the extreme facial muscle fatigue anymore after a few hours of playing. As I mentioned to Brad during my consultation, I'm getting older and I just wasn't making it through a concert of a Milhaud Trio and a Brahms Quintet in a satisfactory way anymore, and his mouthpiece made a world of difference for me. I've purchased quite a few of his $35 Overture model mouthpiece for beginning students, and two of my more advanced high school students are using his Zinner line mouthpieces with excellent results.

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