 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Klarnt
Date: 2020-09-28 19:30
So what would happen if someone (somehow was able to) put an Alto Sax mouthpiece on a Bb Soprano Clarinet? Would it be anymore free-blowing? Would it make the instrument play louder? Would the player have to change the angle in which they hold the Clarinet to match that of an Alto Sax?
Unfortunately I don't have an Alto Sax mouthpiece, reed, nor ligature to answer my questions. Do you guys have any hypothesis or theories?
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2020-09-28 20:55
I tried it for a laugh when I was 14. It didn't work very well at all as the tuning was thrown out the window as it didn't fit far enough into the barrel as the shank was too wide (Selmer S80 C**).
But there's no harm in trying - one with a narrow parallel-sided shank will work best as that will fit much better (deeper) in the barrel with some masking tape or something similar wrapped around to make it fit.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
Post Edited (2020-09-28 23:33)
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2020-09-28 22:43
Yeah, it is an acoustic mismatch.
Just as fruitful to put a Boosey 1010 mouthpiece on ANY other regular clarinet........and just as much an intonation nightmare.
Oddly, I checked out a used clarinet at a local store in the last year (for students to rent) and found it was provided with an alto sax mouthpiece. Of course the mouthpiece goes OVER a tenon rather than into a socket so I'm not sure how the goof happened. The store clerk just awkwardly switched out the alto mouthpiece to correct the obvious error.
..................Paul Aviles
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2020-09-28 23:48
Another thing you could experiment with is machining down a descant/soprano recorder mouthpiece to fit in the barrel and turn your clarinet into a fully keyed recorder. The headjoint bore diameter on a plastic Yamaha descant is around 15.5mm which will be ideal.
I chopped up a broken clarinet mouthpiece to turn it into a shakuhachi-style mouthpiece which had some promise, only a recorder one will be easier to produce the sound on, even if it's not as subtle in tone as a shakuhachi one.
Plastic descant recorders can be bought for next to nothing (there are plenty of Chinese Yamaha copies found on the famous auction site and in any colour you like), so it's not like you've got anything to lose if it doesn't work as you expect it to - apart from not being able to get the time you spent doing it back again.
Edited as I just did some measuring.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
Post Edited (2020-09-29 20:34)
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Author: Fuzzy
Date: 2020-09-29 01:53
Chris P,
"Another thing you could experiment with is machining down either a descant or treble recorder (depending which one has the better bore size) mouthpiece to fit in the barrel and turn your clarinet into a fully keyed recorder. "
That sounds like a fun project! I don't have time to do it right now...but perhaps someday I'll give that a try. I wonder if would take too much air volume? Anyway - thanks for the cool idea.
Fuzzy
;^)>>>
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2020-09-29 07:52
I bought a clarinet on EBay a while ago that came with a tenor sax mouthpiece. When I queried it the seller assured me that it had been play-tested with that mouthpiece. The tenor mouthpiece was worth more than the clarinet so I didn't bother to pursue the matter.
Tony F.
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Author: Michael E. Shultz
Date: 2020-09-30 14:26
I once put the large chamber mouthpiece from my C melody sax onto my Eb alto sax. When I had a chance to check it with the tuner, it was a half note flat. As I later learned, each instrument requires a mouthpiece of a specific volume to be in tune. Intonation is even affected by chamber size. In an instrument in tune with a medium chamber mouthpiece, a small chamber mouthpiece would need to be longer, and a large chamber mouthpiece shorter, so that mouthpiece volume remains the same.
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."
Groucho Marx
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2020-09-30 22:10
I've tried twice now to create a decent mouthpiece for my Oehler-system bass clarinet (bore size .780"/20mm) from "large"-chamber tenor sax mouthpieces, and despite a ton of modification work to enlarge the chamber and deepen the baffle, in the end I got two mouthpieces that, while they do play, and play in tune, they sound lousy. I would describe the sound as 'honky' or 'thin', and this after many refacing attempts as well.
Nice experiments I guess, but fruitless in the end.
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