Author: JF Clarinet
Date: 2019-11-02 11:45
igalkov:
I am currently using a horseshoe marked one.
Ruben:
I can't prove that the hand finishers actually exist or are in the same factory or anything like that. I can tell you that according to page 9 of this product catalog http://jedistar.com/images/December2018/Vandoren_Catalog_2007.pdf, it claims "Each mouthpiece is hand finished at the baffle, walls, and tip rail. Master craftsmen finish and adjust each
mouthpiece to surpass the most critical examinations of professional musicians." I believe in marketing presentations given by Vandoren representatives that they mention this as well, but I do not remember their presentations in perfect detail. I have spoken with several Vandoren artists who have also told me this and recommended certain symbols to me. Most people (outside of marketing materials) do not talk about the hand finishers, instead just mentioning the markings and which ones they like most. A Vandoren artist helped me pick out one a few years ago and only had me try ones with a specific marking. I recently heard from a colleague that Yehuda Gilad encourages students use ones with a specific marking on it (I forget which one).
Anonymoose: Your question overlaps with Ruben's so look at that. I'll add that I have seen roughly 8 different markings so far and am aware of several others that I haven't run into yet personally. There are a lot of markings, and I do not think Vandoren has as many factories as they do markings. I will also vouch for extreme similarities between mouthpieces with the same markings. Last time I tried 20, 6 or 7 were triangles, and all triangles played similarly to each other. There were slight differences between the triangles, but not as much difference as between the circles and the triangles I tried. Visible differences are sometimes observable with certain markings sometimes consistently having, for example, wider rails. I'm inclined to believe the hand finisher claims due to the noticeable (at least to me and several people I have spoken with) differences between different markings, and slight differences between mouthpieces with the same marking that could be explained by the human element.
Going with the hand finisher concept, I would guess that each of them have different styles and preferences as a result of their own setups and training, but all follow similar guidelines for each model of mouthpiece. A mouthpiece finished by one may have a slightly different intention than a mouthpiece finished by another, which would explain differing preferences between markings, and potentially could explain why pros with different setups can still use the "same" mouthpiece, as the dimensions are not 100% the same for each BD5.
Hand finishing by many different people may be a logistical decision by Vandoren, but I would theorize that it also follows a similar logic to how their boxes of reeds work. The reason (according to Vandoren representatives) that within a box of reeds there are several different strengths of, let's say, 4's is so that someone looking for a reed harder than a 4 but softer than a 4.5 can find something that works and someone looking for a reed softer than a 4 but harder than 3.5+ can find something that works. Different situations call for different reeds, different players call for different reeds. The advantage is that people will likely find something that works for them, but may have to throw away some reeds or work on them a lot to make them playable. Applying this same thought to mouthpieces, going through a box of 10, the differences resulting from different hand finishers would (in an ideal world) allow people to find one that works for them. Some of the same model of mouthpiece will work for someone, but others will either be a lost cause or need to be refaced to be playable. I don't know that this is their thinking with mouthpieces, but it would make sense to me to have similar logic driving resulting in variation among individual product lines by the same company.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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