 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Won Kim
Date: 2002-01-29 18:16
This is almost a half price of my Festival clarienet and it still has one more day to go...
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1506115847
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Author: ron b
Date: 2002-01-29 18:40
You are correct, Won Kim. I can't imagine anyone paying $1000 for a mouthpiece, can you? Obviously, though, someone will because there are several bids. Maybe someone can explain this. I'm puzzled.
I'm also wondering whether a mouthpiece could be insured for that amount. I'd be afraid to handle it outside the padded room I'd belong in if I had bought it for that price.
I think we're discussing the same item (?):
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1506115847
...wow :|
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Author: donald nicholls
Date: 2002-01-29 21:52
i've got to say- i played a REALLY NICE Chedeville once and every note was like a bar of gold, but i don't think i'd pay that much money- i'll bet that after i owned it for a week some problems would start to occur.... i'd find tuning difficult, i'd start to have problems finding a good reed... much the same as on any mouthpiece. (though i'd probably sound better, true)
i'd rather pay for a good modern mouthpiece, and spend the difference ($$$wise) on reeds OR work less so that i can practise more. Y'know, there's nothing like practise for sounding good!
nzdonald
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Author: Won Kim
Date: 2002-01-29 22:01
all right...now it's $1400.. I guess it will beat up my Festival price soon...
-won kim
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Author: GBK
Date: 2002-01-29 22:55
That laughter you now hear in the background is from P.T. Barnum...
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Author: Kim L.
Date: 2002-01-30 02:56
What's so big about that mouthpiece? The fact that it was made in France?
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Author: Jack Kissinger
Date: 2002-01-30 04:19
A couple of years ago, the last time the Rams went to the superbowl (I just had to get that in), tickets to the conference championship in the (then) TWA Dome, were a hot item on eBay. There were about five pages of auctions for tickets and the prices generally ranged from $500 to $1,500. Now, surely, if someone is willing, able and happy to pay $1,500 for a ticket to a 3-hour sporting event that can be seen on TV for free (and BTW, the Dome is harder on your hearing than sitting between the drums and trumpets at band practice), then someone with more money than brains should not bat an eye at paying $1,400+ for this mouthpiece.
But wait, I'm not through. It happened that my wife and I had play tickets the night before the game and, in chatting with the folks who have had season tickets next to us at the theater for 10+ years, I mentioned the bidding. Our neighbor laughed and then told how he had "sold" his pair of tickets to someone on eBay for $800, contacted the buyer to arrange the exchange, and never heard from the buyer again. He wound up taking his son to the game.
The two high bidders on this mouthpiece have almost no history with eBay. This is beginning to smell alot like the clarinet that was up around $15,000 a week or so ago. I'll believe this sale when I see the feedback posted.
Best regards,
jnk
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Author: William
Date: 2002-01-30 15:25
Almost all professional players tell me that the mouthpiece really isn't so much about sound, but about response and ease of musical expression. A new mpc will make a slight difference in your sound for, as Larry Combs told us, "about a week" and then you will return to how you always used to sound, because personal "sound" is more a result of your oral cavity configuration and your mental concept than the particular mpc you might be playing on. I also have read, somewhere, that the great Artie Shaw (who is generally highly regarded for his musicianship and his sound) would walk into a music shop, pick the first or cheapest mpc he could find, and then re-face it to his own personal taste. Apparently, he was not impressed with brand names, but instead the responsiveness and ease with which it played. The "sound" was His. Bottom Line: all of this hype about original Cheds and Kaspars--etc, etc, etc (King, from KING and I)--being the answer to aquiring "the sound" is unjustified and misleading. The reputation for their "sounds" may have been a direct result of great clarinetists who used them, and not necessarialy the mpcs themselves. And their "sounds" resulted from lots of hard work, study and unusually keen musical skills that they were born with. I believe that if I took Larry Combs clarinet right out of his hands and played on it, I would still sound like me--not his "tweeked" Opus or his personal Hawkins mpc. So, why should anyone pay big $$'s for an old Chedavelle or Kaspar, if they are ultimately just going to sound the same after "about a week???" Maybe, I should try to market my old GoldenTones--who knows what some clarinetist may be willing to pay????? Just trying to "Ched" some light here--Good Clarineting!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow!! A whole posting without mentioning Greg Smiths great mpcs--OOPS--please disregard.............................
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Author: Sylvain
Date: 2002-01-30 15:35
To put things in perspective. I recently had a clarinet choir course and the instructior told us that he bought his 2 buffets at the factory some years ago. Apparently so many years he does not want to remember ;->
He paid 110USD for his Bb and 130USD for the A.
Now, imagine how this Ched mpc must have cost the original owner...
I tell you never throw away your buffet if you think it's blown out. Cherish your $50 B45 it might be the best investment you've made in a long while...
-S
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Author: Ed
Date: 2002-01-30 16:15
A few thoughts on all of the great postings above. I like the statement:
"if I owned it for a week some problems would start to occur.... i'd find tuning difficult, i'd start to have problems finding a good reed... much the same as on any mouthpiece". or the Larry Combs story.
My repairman and I have discussed this phenomena. He told me that years ago, one of his teachers (who had been one of the top pit and studio players in NYC) told him that every mouthpiece is better than your own until you inflict your own playing upon it.
So much is dependant on your physical make up, concept, choice of reed and ligature to match this concept and finally -how you put it all together (or, what you do with it). I often feel that it makes the most sense to find something that works for you and then practice! Only change when you find equipment that blows you away. It is probably not worth it to change when you have to spend 3 hours trying to figure out if the equipment really is better or not.
I recall when I studied with Robert Marcellus (in the last few years of his masterclasses). He was getting frustrated with his mouthpieces. (This may have been due to not being able to adjust his own reeds anymore, health problems, or not playing full time anymore or whatever.) He was switching between his Kaspar and a Gigliotti. He told me that he loved the sound of his Kaspar but that he was getting unhappy with the feel of it. He related that he loved the feel of the Gigliotti, but didn't like the sound as much. I also heard him play on students mouthpieces in the masterclasses, some very different from his own such as a Pyne. He sounded remarkably the same on all of them.
Moral- a mouthpiece can make a difference, but often, not all it is cracked up to be.
FWIW- recently I saw a receipt (possibly from the early to mid 1960's) from Frank Kaspar for a mouthpiece. $15
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Author: GBK
Date: 2002-01-30 16:33
"FWIW- recently I saw a receipt (possibly from the early to mid 1960's) from Frank Kaspar for a mouthpiece. $15"...
Studying with Dave Etheridge in the late 60's, we all bought Kaspars. I bought 2. Mine were $35 each...I still have the box they were mailed in (and probably the cancelled check, if I look hard enough)...GBK
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Author: William
Date: 2002-01-30 20:25
FWIW, I bought my two Kaspars around 1961 and remember paying $12.00 each--and I thought that that was expensive!!! Before that, I was using a Selmer HS** and switched because the Kaspar brought my high register "down" to be more in tune--not because of any "sound" considerations.
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Author: GBK
Date: 2002-01-30 20:44
$12...$15$...$35... Almost a 300% increase in less than 10 years.
The insanity was just beginning...GBK
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Author: Nelson Heggen
Date: 2002-01-30 23:23
If you look at this "bidding war", you'll notice it is between two people with almost no feedback between them. I'll bet a good Gregory Smith mouthpiece that this transaction never actually takes place.
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Author: Pam
Date: 2002-01-31 01:47
The bidding war ended at 1781.01. I hope it meets THEIR expectations.
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Author: ron b
Date: 2002-01-31 02:24
Nelson -
I wouldn't bet a day old cheeseburger on that =o)
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