The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: SJ
Date: 2003-08-26 04:36
Who knows about GG (Italy) crystal mouthpieces? What does a -1 marking indicate?
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: sfalexi
Date: 2003-08-26 11:52
GG stands for a clarinetist. Sorry but I'm gonna be a bit vague here since I don't remember the information exactly. They were made by Pomarico (still around for crystal MPs). -1 would be the facing (most closed). Probably ranged from -1 to 4. Supposedly those mouthpieces were pretty good.
Alexi
http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=87562&t=87539
For more info on them.
US Army Japan Band
Post Edited (2003-08-26 11:55)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Don Berger
Date: 2003-08-26 15:02
I MAY? be the only one, owning and playing 2!! GG bass cl glass-crystal mps, a #3 and a refaced #1, the best I've found!! Look in older catalogs for Pom's facing descriptions, a -1 is likely a quite close tip! I [we] previously thot they were made by Pomarico for Gino Gioffi [to sell?], but someone, Dave S? et al [please respond!] corrected me, my memory is not the sharpest today!! GBK reports E GIGI in the above link, via looking up this older thread/post on it. BE CAREFUL, one drop, tough!! Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: GBK
Date: 2003-08-26 15:11
The Pomarico GG mouthpieces were named for Efrain Guigui, (or Ephriam Gigi if you prefer the Americanized spelling).
The facings ran from -1 to 3 ...GBK
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Dan Shusta
Date: 2003-08-26 23:48
I'm quite certain the Bb and Eb clarinet mouthpieces are numbered the same.
If you'll go to www.pomaricompieces.com, they list the order for the Eb as being: 0, -1, 1, 2, 3.
Again, I'm quite positive it's the same for Bb.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: SJ
Date: 2003-08-27 02:29
Do you think that Dave S. could open it up for me? Does he work on crystal? Most mouthpiece refacers won't touch them.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: sfalexi
Date: 2003-08-27 11:04
Dave S stated in a couple posts that I remember that he DOES work on crystal. It's just a little harder (PUN!). Give him a call/email. I really liked what he did for me. Hopefully he'll be able to help you too!
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2003-08-27 14:03
Ja, ja, I am not afraid of little girly crystal! You send to me und I reface, ja?
Ahnold the Crystal Mouthpiece Refacinator
Sorry for the poor humor, no insult intended to any ethnic group or candidate for Governor of the Great State of California.
My email address available at the Clarinet Classifieds.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: pinkcellophane
Date: 2022-12-19 21:28
So glad of the clarification- i recently chipped the tip of my GG italy rock Crystal with what looks like a +1. My mouthpiece still plays but I’m trying to get a replacement - I’ve been playing on it for 40 years. Any info to help me. I do know today the Pomarico is the same?
504 913 6912
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: StanD
Date: 2022-12-23 22:42
<BE CAREFUL, one drop, tough!! Don>
Don, I know what you mean! Went through 3 GG’s in the late 60’s-early 70’s. The third, and last, one broke in my mouth while sitting beside, at the piano, and playing along with my little daughter. Caught the bell on the lower edge of the keyboard. That was it for me and crystal mpcs. Too bad. I liked the sound of them.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2022-12-27 01:07
I've been refacing and playing regularly on crystal mouthpieces for 30+ years, on soprano and bass clarinets plus tenor and alto saxes. Have only broken ONE in all that time, when I dropped it on a hard concrete floor while refacing it (in order to dive at the stairwell to catch my toddler daughter who was in the process of falling down it!) They are not as fragile as you might think.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: super20dan
Date: 2022-12-29 18:13
most every one likes them till they break theirs. i played an obrien for 20 years and got the most important clarinet job in my lifetime . a theater production that was to last most of the summer . the lady and the clarinet. i took my Obrien to get recorked and the tech broke it! couldnt find one anywhere! this was before the internet and i had to go all the way to boston to get a replacement. after the show was done i retired my obrien due to the trauma of having to replace it again as it was bound to get broken again at some point
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Tony F
Date: 2022-12-29 19:31
One of the best mouthpieces I've played was a Leblanc crystal. It was on an L7 that I bought years ago. It sat in my junk drawer for years until I decided to give it a try after reading a thread here on crystal mouthpieces. It was superb, tuned well and articulated effortlessly right up to the point where I dropped it on a tiled floor. It went off like a hand grenade and I was finding bits of it for months.
Recently I've been playing a Vandoren Number 1 crystal. It's as good as the Leblanc.
Tony F.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Chetclar
Date: 2022-12-29 22:13
I was marching with a Gigi crystal mouthpiece in 1960 and it broke in my mouth also! For the next three years, I played Sousaphone on the march. I broke three O”Brien crystal mouthpieces in one year at Eastman as a freshman, and “borrowed” a very good Woodwind Co. G8 from a friend. I played that mouthpiece through my graduate school years there and professionally in the Syracuse Symphony and the Rochester Philharmonic. I still miss the sound of those beautiful crystal mouthpieces!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2022-12-30 04:19
Unless it has a pre-existing crack, I have no idea how one could break a crystal mouthpiece in one's mouth. Pretending it was a pretzel stick and biting hard? Marching with it and stepping off an unseen curb? Help me out, folks - if you broke one in your mouth, what were you doing at the time?
By the way, I would never play a crystal without a mouthpiece patch on the beak. Besides reducing the risk of breaking your teeth, it reduces the transmission of vibrations into your teeth, and adds grip to keep the mouthpiece from sliding around inside your mouth. I'd guess that playing without such a patch could contribute to a broken mouthpiece.
Post Edited (2022-12-30 04:47)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: StanD
Date: 2023-01-15 05:28
I second that! A sort of sardonic, I told you so, ignoring of the stated happenstances, conjectures and here’s what I would have done non- contribution was inevitable.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
|