The Clarinet BBoard

Re: custom barrles and ?bells?

Author: Mags1957  Date:   2006-09-21 03:57 You will get many different ideas on this subject - here's my personal experience: I play on a Yamaha CS custom clarinet, with (at the time) a Richard Hawkins mouthpiece. I wasn't particularly thrilled with the resistance / volume of the clarinet, and it seemed a bit "bright" to me as well. I didn't like it as well as my previous horn - a Buffet Prestige. I started experimenting with barrels - first a Chadash. A nice improvement - not earth-shaking, but noticeable - at least to me. Then just for grins I got a Backun barrel - WOW. really free blowing, warmed up the sound, helped projection and intonation. I tried this against my original barrel and my Chadash barrel in a double-blind test. I had several clarinet players listen to me on both barrels - they didn't know which barrel I was playing, and niether did I (at least in theory - the truth is, the Backun had such a better sound and projection, I always knew when I was playing it). Hands down everyone loved the Backun. It literally transformed my whole clarinet into a much nicer instrument. About a year later, I tried a Backun/Morales mouthpiece and I was hooked (yeah, I know some on this board critisize the "expensive mouthpiece" phenomenon, but man, this combo is the nicest I've ever played - I now love my clarinet/barrel.mouthpice more than any I've ever played (I've been playing about 35 years). My current set-up is: Yamaha CS custom clarinet, with Backun/Morales mouthpiece (orchestra model) Grand Concert thick blank select reeds - strength 4, Vandoren "Klassic" ligature, and a backun Barrel. I have no intention of changing any of these any time soon - I'm absolutely thrilled with the sound/projection/feel I'm getting. I might try a Backun Bell when I scrape a few bucks together There are many barrel /mouthpiece/ bell makers with excellent reputations, who produce excellent products. One may well suit your needs perfectly. And to answer your question: YES they can make a significant difference. No they are not a substitute for listening and practice.

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