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Re: The German Mouthpiece Experience

Author: donald
Date: 2015-11-13 12:49

The clarinet BB seems to be full of odd coincidences for me lately, JUST THIS WEEK a friend came back from Melbourne with a Viotto N1 (bought 2nd hand from someone he met at a conference) that plays very nicely. This is a German style blank in terms of design of facing/baffle/sidewalls etc, with a bore and a tenon to match Boehm system clarinets (the CSG doesn't really have much in common with German or Reform Boehm clarinets other than the shorter barrel). And the German style "rings" on the outside in case you want to use string.
Viotto has always produced very fine mouthpieces for Boehm system clarinets (the ones I've seen and played were produced using a mouthpiece blank very similar to the Zinner "E" blank).
I'm down on record here on this BB as saying that Wurlitzer RB mouthpieces can work very well on Boehm system clarinets- from my own experience and that or some very fine professional players (though, worth noting that both the players I note have returned to using French style mouthpieces). My experience has also been that mouthpieces made for Oehler system clarinets do not tune correctly- I'd amend that to "Might not". My F Wurlitzer mouthpieces (I own 2) fit on a Buffet barrel well enough to play, but the 12th are out by 20c across the board- obviously an acoustical mismatch.
Of course, Germany being a land of hand made clarinets with unique and inovative acoustical design ALONGSIDE those just repeating the tradition handed down to them, it's a bit pointless to talk of "German mouthpieces" where the bore is concerned- though the acoustic design of the baffle etc is more uniform. Some people on the BB here have in the past also mentioned Zinner blanks designed for Boehm system as "German mouthpieces". Which they are, but made specifically for French clarinets.....
Anyhow, my friend is also very impressed by his Viotto N1. It's designed with a lot of compression and "hold" in the mouthpiece that makes it relatively easy to get a certain "shape" in the sound, but less easy to vary that within a phrase (not impossible by any means, just "less easy"). If you want to play a french style mouthpiece with "very little effort (if any) of the embouchure." there ARE options for that within the Boehm mouthpieces available (was it Campione who talked of "the reed floating on a bed of roses"?) but it sounds like you'd need to adjust your embouchure and playing style somewhat (remember- the whole purpose of the "Flat chin" is that it pulls the lower jaw AWAY from the reed).
Let me know if you want to sell that mouthpiece, I quite like my friends one and find it very easy to adjust to (from a Lomax A3, or Hawkins S) plus I have a local supply of German reeds (imported when playing RB mouthpieces was a fad here in NZ, but never sold)
dn

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The German Mouthpiece Experience new

Paul Aviles

2015-11-13 07:27