 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Clarinetcola
Date: 2006-05-01 04:28
An H.Bettoney/Boston mouthpiece came with a used clarinet I recently won on ebay, and after searching thru the board (http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=32945&t=32928 -1st reply) It seems to be a Ched. mouthpiece stamped with H.Bettoney/Boston on it. As I have never played on a ched, i could not compare them together
but I find it extremely hard to play. I use Van#3 1/2 and what I could get were squeaks,squeaks and squeaks. It seems to have a very short facing, so I tried a #3 (which was the softest reed i could find in my house), and it came out better, but still hard to control.
so... is this mouthpiece actually usable if i try softer reeds(or maybe harder), or should i just put it aside, and has anyone played with this mouthpiece?
thanks for replying,
Nathan
Post Edited (2006-05-01 04:28)
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Author: frank
Date: 2006-05-01 05:25
Yes. Put it aside. Lots of old Chedevilles I've played/owned were junk. The facing could be warped. I would have someone reface it. After that, if it still plays poorly, dump it! Lesson learned, eh? Get a cheapo Vandoren and delight in its easy playabilty. 
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Author: donald
Date: 2006-05-01 09:58
Certainly the best mouthpiece i've ever performed on was one of these, refaced by Brad Behn. Unfortunately the mouthpiece belonged to my teacher who was unwilling to sell it to me (but was generous enough to let me use it on "long term loan"). A friend reccently got a Kaspar that played terribly until refaced (the facing had warped over the years, as Frank suggested might be the case with yours).
There's no guarantee, but you COULD have a gem there, just waiting to be refaced. Please make sure that, should you decide to get it refaced, you send it to someone with a very good reputation and experience- it would be pity if such a potentially good mouthpiece were to be butchered.
donald
"In this work Nicholls proved himself a skilled composer with fine musical ideas as well as a talented clarinetist."
The Clarinet, March 2006
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2006-05-01 17:31
>>There's no guarantee, but you COULD have a gem there, just waiting to be refaced. Please make sure that, should you decide to get it refaced, you send it to someone with a very good reputation and experience- it would be pity if such a potentially good mouthpiece were to be butchered.
>>
Yes--and if it plays poorly, please don't "dump it," as a different person suggested. A collector might be interested in it. I don't know the retail value today, but if an old Chedville or "H. Bettoney" stamped mouthpiece is in reasonably good condition, it's uncommon enough to have some historic significance.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2006-05-01 17:42
Good advice, Lelia and donald, I have one also, its being slightly scarred, I gave it a couple of mild "swipes" on 600 grit paper, polished it on newsprint, and it plays quite well, partic on my wood H Bet [USN] cl, just not as good as my Sel CT with a "fairly-open" glass mp. Will check it for Ched marks, dont recall any. Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Brenda Siewert
Date: 2006-05-01 18:17
You should send it off to someone to reface, such as Chris Hill or Brad Behn. They are pretty knowledgeable about Chedevilles. Then, if you don't like it you can list it on eBay and sell it. A newly refaced mouthpiece by a qualified and respected mouthpiece artisan is a good thing. Of course, if you can't play it, it isn't worth squat to you, but it might be someone else's cup of tea.
BTW, I clicked your link above and noticed anji was the originator. I wonder where he is these days?
Post Edited (2006-05-01 18:18)
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Author: Synonymous Botch
Date: 2006-05-02 12:53
I would hazard a guess that your grasp of English will surpass the average grasp of any Chinese or other Asian languages on this Bulletin board...
I only wish my American students had a working lexicon so strong as the one used to frame your question....
*****
Why not just sell the mouthpiece, outright, to offset the cost of your clarinet?
A mouthpiece so old as that one has likely been "ridden hard and put away wet" by previous owners. Time spent practicing with your favorite reeds will yield better results than trying to accomodate a new piece of gear.
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Author: Chetclarinet
Date: 2006-05-02 14:29
There are many styles and types of Bettoney mouthpieces. The later ones, made of plastic, stamped H. Bettoney are of poor quality. Some, with "Qualitie Superieure" or with an oval stamp around the Bettoney label are of very good quality. The best ones, in my opinion have the "Steele Ebonite" on the back of the mouthpiece and the H. Bettoney on the bottom , a facing number to the right side, and the words "Artistic Facing" in english to the right of the table. If you have this one, it will sell for plenty of money without refacing.
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Author: frank
Date: 2006-05-02 15:55
I know I didn't fail to mention in my original post above that AFTER you reface the mouthpiece AND it still does not sound great... THEN you should "dump it". Nice one Lelia! What collector value is there for a mouthpiece that is not good? It's back to the old argument that if it's an "X", it's gotta be good! Here is some food for thought in one prime example:
If anyone is from Cali or reads the news here, about a month ago there was a Ferarri Enzo supercar (worth approx 1,000,000) that hit a pole doing 150mph on the PCH. The car was cut in half, engine flew out of the car, etc. What's it worth now? About $10,000 for nostalgia purposes. This figure translated into moutpiece price would make a bad Chedeville worth roughly 5 cents. Fine. BUT.... that Enzo doesn't drive anymore!
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Author: susieray
Date: 2006-05-02 16:05
You know, a good mouthpiece guy would be able to tell whether it is worth refacing or not. I don't believe they would spend the time on it if were not. So it wouldn't hurt to send it to someone who has expertise in that area and have them take a look at it. They won't waste your money or their time on it if it is total junk.
Sue
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2006-05-02 20:57
The important part of an old mouthpiece is the baffle. Almost any facing can be restored, but if the baffle has been hacked at, nothing can be done. Look down into your mouthpiece to see whether the baffle is shiny or shows signs of having been worked on (i.e., with a file).
I got two Bettoney mouthpieces with a pair of 1908 Buffets I bought, but the mouthpiece maker I showed them to said they were beyond rescue.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2006-05-03 20:40
Although I don't think anybody should waste time *playing* on an old mouthpiece that's not worth refacing, I stand by what I wrote about historical value: different from monetary value or musical value. Historic value means that the more examples we've got, the more we know about the history of the brand name. I remember one time my husband stopped into the Smithsonian's natural history museum (a few blocks from his office before he retired) to ask a curator about a strange bird we'd seen in our back yard. The curator listened to the description and said, "Hmmm, let's see." He went to a wall full of drawers that looked quite a bit like the drawers in a police morgue, in miniature. He pulled out a drawer containing row upon row of stuffed bird corpses. "Did it look like one of these?"
Several drawers later, my husband spotted our odd bird. Turned out to be an immature specimen of a fairly common "confusing fall warbler" (I've forgotten which one) that doesn't quite belong in our neighborhood, but sometimes drops in. The little dead bird wasn't worth half a nickel, probably, even on eBay, but the information--priceless.
Think of that old, dead mouthpiece as a little dead--er, that's coming out all wrong, isn't it? Ick. But you get the idea.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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