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Re: Vandoren's date for introduction of 442 MP's ?

Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2018-10-09 01:12

For some reason Vandoren and Buffet think the USA wants us to tune to 440 or lower. The M series mouthpieces, which I've written about are sadly longer in length. The BD5 comes in 2 styles, 440 and 442. But the tip openings are around 1.12mm's, which I feel is too open. So why buy any Vandoren's? The altissimo registers on the M series most likely will drop to 438. We don't have to accept this as there are a lot of other excellent mouthpieces and barrel makers to fix this.

As for the Buffet R13's well we have to go back to the 1960's when pretty much every symphony player used R13's, and very few players used other instruments. But in the 1970's Buffet made the bores bigger so the pitch went flat and now you sometimes have to use a 63mm barrel on an A clarinet to to play in tune. Why? Because most symphonies such as Boston and the Los Angeles Philharmonic tune to 442. Just to name a few symphonies.

If we all stop buying low pitched horns and M series mouthpieces they just might stop making them wrong.

So far their solutions are to make more models and charge more for clarinets and even some of the mouthpieces.

So the American sound is kind of gone, because of this poor quality control design decisions perhaps from people that don't even play the horns.

So frustrating. Even if you find a great Chedeville or a great Kaspar plan on buying a short barrel, because most likely you will be playing flat.

I give a lot of credit to Ricardo with the Philly Orchestra for searching for the right setup.

Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces

Yamaha Artist 2015

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