 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Iceland clarinet
Date: 2007-02-15 22:17
I'm curious to know if somebody here plays on these mouthpieces and what brand of reed and strength they use. I saw here on the board that many people are using V-12 #3,5 reeds on Fobes CF+ facing but I find V-12 #3,5 is fine for me on the AW. But in fact I play Gonsalez FOF no#3,25 on the AW I like it even though they are a bit harder than #3,5 V-12. I'm asking since I need a new mouthpiece because the left side of the tip on the AW is worne and doesn't respond well anymore. I also interested in trying Fobes.Then I'm also curious to know if I might be using too hard reeds.
Thanks for any advice. Stefan Thor
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Author: bufclar
Date: 2007-02-15 22:29
The Fobes is very different than the Grabner so be prepared for quite a switch. Fobes mouthpieces are very free blowing and much more responsive. I like the Fobes much more (and Smith and Hawkins) because they are so much more responsive. Grabner mouthpieces for me took a lot of work and eventuallty I felt it was not worth the effort. V12 3 1/2 on the fobes should work very well. Also try his 2L facing which I liked more than the CF+.
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Author: Iceland clarinet
Date: 2007-02-15 23:14
Okay I acctually heard that Hawkins mouthpieces are very resistance. I wouldn't be very suprissed since he plays on the Leblanc Opus clarinets and I found them to be very resistance. But I have to say that I found Grabner SW1 to be a lot free blowing but thats maybe just me. On the AW I found that I can use soft V-12s #3 and also hard V-12s #3,5 with good sugess when on the other hand I feel that I can't use much more than farily Stiff V-12s #3,5 on the SW1. But then again Grabner are the only(apart from directly from Zinner) Zinner based mouthpieces I've tried. For the AW mouthpiece I have to say that it's the most reed friendly mouthpiece I have ever played not only in percent of usable reeds but also it accepted at least 6 different cut reeds with different facing lenghts.
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Author: Matt Locker
Date: 2007-02-16 12:30
Stefan:
I play a Grabner AW & use V12 3.5 or V12 4.0. The conditions (humidity/temp/...) determine which works best for that particular day. I also find the 4.0 works better for chamber work but the 3.5 seems more appropriate for band music! Go figure............
An amateur clarinetist,
Matt
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Author: Iceland clarinet
Date: 2007-02-16 13:12
Okay V-12 #4 on the AW is to stiff for me and my teacher always says that I tend to use a bit hard reeds but he use V-12 #3,5 on Grabner KXZ_13 or 14.
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Author: Roger Aldridge
Date: 2007-02-17 13:05
Iceland,
I was talking with Walter Grabner recently and he mentioned that he uses #3.5 V12 reeds on his mouthpieces.
I don't use a AW. However, I have Grabner K11, K2e, and K14 mouthpieces. One thing I've found is a lot depends on matching the mouthpiece and reed strength to your particular clarinet and barrel. With this in mind, it's my opinion that it's not helpful to talk about mouthpieces and reeds like they are in a vacuum without taking into account the other parts of your equipment.
My primary clarinet is a vintage (1960) Couesnon Monopole. It's bore size is around .580 or .579. For whatever reason, I get the best results on it with the K14. I also have a plastic Yamaha that I purchased last year for playing hot summer outdoor performances. I had a difficult time getting Grabner mouthpieces to work on it as they played flat. (Walter told me he heard that from another person as well.) However, the Grabner K2e (442) and a Phil Muncy 64 mm Black Diamond barrel did the trick. Intonation is now spot-on and this set up has a pretty decent quality of sound. Finally, I recently tried different Grabner mouthpieces on my Patricola C clarinet. Walter thought the K2e would be a good match. However, it turned out that the K11 gives me the best intonation (with a 44 mm barrel) and quality of sound.
An important point I want to make is in matching these 3 mouthpieces to my different clarinets I discovered the same reed strength works fine for me on all of them even though each mouthpiece has a different tip size. I suspect that this is due to each clarinet having a different level of resistance -- with different bore sizes and designs. The reed I'm using is a #3 Legere Quebec. I've found it to be somewhere between a #3 and #3.5 V12...with a #3 V12 being too soft for me.
Hope this helps in some way.
Roger
Post Edited (2007-02-17 13:16)
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Author: Iceland clarinet
Date: 2007-02-17 16:26
Thanks alot Roger this sure helped and when I think about it I think I might use a little bit harder reed on my Festival Bb clarinet than I did when I played the R-13 prestige Bb. You know the AW is pitched higher than the SW1 and SW2 mouthpieces but I find using 65mm barrel with the SW1 and 2 gives me pitch around 442 and 66mm barrel with the AW gives me also 442 pitch. I also want to point out that I needed 65mm barrel on the R-13 prestige to play 442 pitch with the AW. Maybe this is due to the register key on the Festival is placed higher than on the R-13 but I'm not sure. I have settled on 3,5 reed strenght(V-12#3,5 and FOF#3,25) and choose mouthpieces from there.
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