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Re: Clarinet barrels

Author: donald
Date: 2017-12-25 17:01

The service Les offers where he makes a barrel based on measurements of your mouthpiece and clarinet bore is really very good- when he did this for me in 2008 the intonation was significantly improved (most notably, sharpness in the B+A below middle C was corrected without flattening F#/F/E in the upper register).
The only real disadvantage I've found is that this barrel works at its BEST with the mouthpiece it's designed to work with- so if you change mouthpiece there's no guarantee that it will still play with as good intonation.
Mine works amazingly with the Backun/Zinner that it was intended for, but no better than the stock barrel, or most of my others- including Behn and Chadash, with the mouthpiece I currently use.
In fact, I only played that Backun for a year after getting the Les Nicholas barrel, but in the years since have used it [THE BARREL] with a number of other mouthpieces with what I consider good results. I'm not Ricardo by any means, but I don't think this barrel/mouthpiece combination can be blamed for my shortcomings....
That said- the improvement to the intonation was remarkable, and I've been meaning for ages to get him to make one that suits my current mouthpiece.
dn

- when teaching I play Legere 3.25 sop sax signature reeds and tend to use a Muncy plastic barrel as this barrel offers just a little more resistance (the 3.25 is just a tad too light)
- when gigging I play the Les Nicholas barrel (which is a bit more free blowing) with cane reeds if I don't think the Legere will be sufficient (it doesn't work as well in some acoustics, and if playing 2nd sometimes I need a slightly different sound and more leeway to push the pitch UP if necessary).
- In the summer I use a Brad Behn rubber barrel on my A clarinet, this thing sounds AWESOME but I find on my B flat clarinet the throat B flat is a little low in pitch, so only use it on my A clarinet.

Post Edited (2018-01-03 01:30)

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