Author: Hurstfarm
Date: 2019-03-15 18:16
To pick up your original question, I’m sure that Emma Johnson’s instruments are a factor in her sound, and the vocal quality of that sound and her use of vibrato are in the English wide bore tradition. That said, players tend to sound a lot like themselves when trying out different equipment, so the extent to which sound is a product of the instrument or the player will always be a subject of vigorous debate! Also, the differences may be more apparent to the player than the listener - as my wife (a musician with a good ear, who I sometimes subject to blind testings) would confirm!
As a student I became the owner of a pair of B&H 1010s just before they went out of production, selected by my teacher (ex-military and Philharmonia Orchestra) who loved them. I stretched my budget and bought an Eaton mouthpiece, followed about 15 years later by a pair of Elites. They had all the qualities I liked in the 1010s but with better intonation and added power. Having tried many other instruments (and I no longer use the Elites exclusively), for me nothing else has offered quite the same warm, velvety quality in the sound.
Peter Eaton clarinets rarely come up for sale second hand, but Peter’s website suggests that he still has a handful of used Elites available, although I’m guessing probably not for long.
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