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Re: New Vandoren BD6 HD

Author: SecondTry
Date: 2023-12-14 01:14

As it relates to this mouthpiece and its 121.5 (1/100 mm) opening: quite the gap as mouthpieces go, I like what Mark Nuzzio has to say about reeds: a seemingly unrelated or only tangential topic:

He says to play on the softest reeds that don't compromise your artistry.

So I do. Clarinet is hard enough, both technically and physically, so this player finds himself using 3.0 strength Vandoren or Vandoren equivalent on a Vandoren M15 mouthpiece: considered a very closed mouthpiece given its long facing and 103.5 tip opening. My ability to still hit [C7]

isn't usually affected (for the 3 times a year I need to hit this note) so why play harder reeds?

Along these lines, I have little wiggle room to come down on reed strength to compensate for the substantially wider mouthpiece tip opening of this new offering. I tried some of the other Black Diamond offerings with smaller tip openings and had to work harder for no gains.

So while I'm interested in this so called high density ebonite, there is no way a mouthpiece material is going to get me to where I want to be if its tip opening is as large as this.

Of course, that's just me. YMMV.

Post Edited (2023-12-14 01:56)

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