 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: musica
Date: 2025-03-09 17:52
Just wondering… Do synthetic reeds wear down mouthpiece tips faster than cane ?
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: SecondTry
Date: 2025-03-09 21:35
First: I don't know.
Second: I'd be surprised, but not shocked, if there is a consensus here.
Third: If there is a consensus I have no idea if cane or non-cane reeds are seen as more abrasive.
Fourth: If there is in fact consensus on difference I would be surprised if that difference on wear and tear would be so large as to effect a large change to the financial cost of being a clarinet player that much in terms of need to reface or re-purchase a name brand mouthpiece played out of the box without modification.
I'm curious, but am of the opinion that choice of reed material should be about what does most for a player's ability to express themselves.
Conflict of interest: I normally play cane but have been known to swap in a Legere French cut on bad reed days.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2025-03-09 23:32
That's an interesting question. I've been using Legere exclusively for about ten years and (oddly for me) I've been using mostly one mouthpiece during that time. I can't say that I have noticed any wear at all. There is some dulling of the playing surface of the rails but I wouldn't call that wear per se. I do recall early on in my playing days I had used a Hite pretty consistently and thought enough of the "rounding" of the rails after a year or so to ask Hite to address this with a refacing. Now my sensibilities have changed over the years but I'd say that if I thought enough to ask about the facing then there must have been some appreciable wear. It would make sense that a more irregular surface that you get from a piece of wood should be more "abrasive." But there is NOTHING scientific or really that accurate when memory is the main component.
................Paul Aviles
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: super20dan
Date: 2025-03-10 19:36
when i first started playing bass clarinet-i bought a used vandy b46 mpc that played great. i used exclusively. bari synthetic plastic reeds for many years on it and the facing is completly shot on it now. the mpc will not even make a sound no matter what reed i use. i feel the bari plastic reed greatly accelerated the wear on the facing as this rapid wear has never happened on any mpc i played for decades even using cane. bear in mind Bari reeds are made from a much harder plastic than any other synthetic reeds .
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
