 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Bog_Roll
Date: 2026-09-02 12:43
What's so big about BIGMouthPiece?
Now, before anyone gets their (alto clarinet) neck in a knot, I ask the question posed in the thread title in a genuine spirit of enquiry, and I mean it literally.
BIGMouthPiece for alto clarinet has a tip opening of .073". While that's nearly .020" wider than Vandoren's biggest piece, the BD5, it's hardly enormous. A vintage Selmer C* is .067", and a Woodwind Educator B6 is .071". Has the BIGMouthPiece inventor tried these pieces?
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I'd be perfectly willing to hail Windy Dankoff as the Theo Wanne of the alto clarinet, but unfortunately, the BIGMouthPiece videos posted thus far, don't live up to the expectations created by the rave reviews on the maker's website.
In other threads on this board, there's always some story, like "that was a prototype", or "I'm not a classical player". Really, what difference does that make? One needs the same solid technical command of the instrument, regardless of style.
A new mouthpiece will not correct deficiencies in one's technique, or regulation problems with one's instrument. There's a fair bit of key noise in some of the BM videos.
The customer who was so impressed with BM that he bought two of them, describing their tuning as "flawless", turned around and said it was "not possible" to post a soundclip of BIGMouthpiece, let alone a video.
Going by the videos currently available, strong players on conventional mouthpieces, like Matthew Banks or Alex Simu, will blow BIGMouthPiece right off the stage.
That said, "Instrument Maniac" plays well, with a good sound using BM in his own compositions, but I wouldn't have known just by listening, that he plays BIGMouthPiece.
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BIGMouthPiece is a modified plastic tenor sax mouthpiece, but is twice the price of Jared de Leon's 3D-printed alto clarinet mouthpiece, designed from the beginning for the right instrument.
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What brand of reed did you measure for your claim (in the pdf instructions) that the "vibrating portion" of an alto clarinet reed is only 12% longer than that of a Bb clarinet reed? The length of the actual "vibrating portion" can vary, depending on, 1) the facing length, and 2) how much mouthpiece one takes into one's mouth. Seems to me, the number one cause of stuffiness on alto clarinet, is simply not taking in enough mouthpiece.
Let's measure the older Ricos I currently play, down the centreline of the reed, from the tip to the start of the cut. My Rico "woodgrain box" Bb reed measures 32mm. My Rico "orange box" alto clarinet reed has a 37mm length of cut. Now, 37 divided by 32 is 1.15625. Thus, the cut of an alto clarinet reed is 15.6% longer than that of a Bb reed, not 12%.
You state that because an alto clarinet is 34% longer than a Bb clarinet, its reed should also be that much longer. But if it were a necessary truth of woodwind design, that there be a 1:1 correspondence between instrument length and reed length, a bass clarinet reed would be twice as long as a Bb clarinet reed, and a contrabass reed, twice as long again, or four times the length of a Bb reed.
What is wrong with the traditional AC mpc design? If the tenor sax mpc from which BM is made, needs to be shortened and have its chamber enlarged to match the dimensions of an AC piece, then the traditional alto clarinet mouthpiece design must be correct, at least in those areas.
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Potential customers would like to see clear and well-lit photos looking through the inside of BIGMouthPiece, from each end. Yet, there are no such photos on the maker's website.
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You say BM's full-lenth cork "prevents wobble". But correctly sized traditional corks don't wobble. And BM's cork will still wobble if it's too small for a particular neck.
When you have BM in the lathe to cut its tenon, why not go ahead and cut the traditional cork recess while you're at it?
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If certain makes of AC need a special brass neck insert to play in tune with BM, then the BM design is not correct for those makes.
If BM is designed to overcome the poor response of the lower clarion in plastic student instruments with a single register key, how does it play on a pro wooden AC with automatic double register key, that doesn't have such problems?
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You state that BM plays well in the altissimo register, "up to A6". When I first read that, I took the alto clarinet's low A as A1, and assumed BM gave a range of over five octaves. But you certainly don't play five octaves in your video! I suspect you're using absolute notation, and this "A6" is merely "altissimo A", the A in the 5th space above the treble staff in AC transposition.
The aforementioned Selmer C* will easily play an unprepared altissimo C. I look forward to hearing the same from BIGMouthPiece.
Better alto clarinet players that me, can play as high as a Bb clarinet. A traditional AC mpc will play up to "double altissimo G", the G two octaves above the treble staff in AC transposition, sounding the same concert Bb as "altissimo C" on the Bb clarinet.
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Lastly, when someone on another thread questioned the tuning advice given on the BM website, the maker's petulant response was, "I won't sell you one". Seems there's plenty of room for improvement in customer relations...!
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Author: farabout
Date: 2026-09-02 16:23
Have you at least tried the BIG mpc before concocting this diatribe?
Post Edited (2026-09-02 16:23)
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Author: lydian
Date: 2026-09-02 18:34
I've never tried one either, but as the play test videos confirm, it doesn't really work on paper or in real life. Windy is very excited about it and trying to turn it into a business, which is great, that's the American way. But I wouldn't go near this. It's essentially like playing a bari mouthpiece on a tenor sax. Yeah, it's a cool sound, and kind of works on some notes, but is no substitute for an actual tenor mouthpiece designed for a tenor sax.
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Author: farabout
Date: 2026-09-02 19:06
lydian wrote:
> I've never tried one either
Which is rather obvious.
> but as the play test videos
> confirm, it doesn't really work on paper or in real life.
The problem with said videos is that those players are, with all due respect, not much of the players to begin with.
> It's essentially like playing a bari mouthpiece on a tenor sax.
N.B., Gene Ammons sometimes played an alto clarinet mouthpiece on tenor sax. Besides, C-melody sax in general accepts either tenor or alto sax mouthpieces.
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