Author: sfalexi
Date: 2012-08-09 01:23
I'm a gear-a-holic, so I spent about 8 hours in the gear room trying out various things. mostly new stuff that I hadn't tried out before, but I did revisit a few things that I remembered liking to see if I still liked them after not trying them after a few years.
I'll just write a list and a few words on each, and if you have questions, feel free to email me or post up another thread on that specific item so others can chime in too.
For the record, the setup I brought over and tried things out on was a Buffet Festival Greenline clarinet, Vandoren M15 mouthpiece, and legere and V12 reeds. I tend to gravitate towards close-tip mouthpieces, harder reeds, and a freeblowing clarinet. For testing gear, I pretty much tried fast articulation on altissimo F, E, and D, fast articulated scale, smears in the upper clarion register and over the break into the altissimo, and I tested forte low notes as I feel that tends to expose "bad" mouthpieces (they lose all semblance of focus and tone at a fff on a low G or Ab). better mouthpieces keep it longer. I also tested coming in on an altissimo note (once again F, E, D) from nothing and growing at a steady rate to mf to make sure a mouthpiece or clarinet doesn't give me an undertone or make it hard to control a STEADY growth of volume on those notes. And I steered well clear of the mozart clarinet concerto for the sake of the exhibitors.
Dave McLune mouthpieces: I've read a lot about them and didn't get to try them. They were very good. But if I were a magazine writer, his STUDENT mouthpiece would be my gadget of the show. Yes, it's plastic. Yes it's $40. But it plays VERY well. So well I bought two, and am having a difficult time figuring out whether I'm ONLY going to use it outside, or if it's going to end up as my main mouthpiece too. Only time will tell. Teachers, you now have another very good, cheap option for students.
Taplin-Weir Barrel: Really liked it. Going to ask my band to order one. She measured my barrel and taper, selected a few that would work with it (in my case, the 65m3), and they all sounded VERY VERY good.
Backun Protege Clarinet: Liked it. For the price, I think it's a very good deal. Keywork wasn't as solid as a MoBa clarinet, but the sound was nice. Still don't like the protege barrels, but put a different barrel on it, and it's a viable option to an R13 for the person that doesn't want to spend 3500 bucks.
Walter Grabner K14* (new mouthpiece): I own a K11* and a K2e. He makes very good mouthpieces. This one followed the same rule. Very consistent too. I could pickup and play every one on the table. He just doesn't disappoint (except he stopped making the chedeville ones which I loved! Although he explained why and I completely understand....still doesn't mean I'm not sad though.)
Yamaha CSV and CSG-II: Exactly what I remember from proline yamaha clarinets of about 4 years ago. Very even, very in tune, and very predictable. Only thing is the palette of colors available just isn't as much as others. I think they'd be great in most concertband/chamber music situations, but I don't know how they'd do when I have to fake my way through dixie music or contemporary stuff. For the record, Yamaha's master tech was there, but it at least shows that with a competent tech, these clarinets can play damned near perfect.
Rovner Ligatures: LOVED the versa-X. Going to have my band order one of those too. Tried a new "van gogh" ligature (I THINK it was vangogh....some sort of famous painter...) and while it performed well, it was designed to be worn loose. And I wasn't comfortable with a loose ligature, and I thought the versaX played best.
Antigua by Backun: Much more resistant than I like to play. After Tom Puwalski tried out my setup, I guess it turns out I prefer a resistant setup, which coupled with a resistant clarinet makes it hard to play. Maybe it's designed for freeblowing setups?
Lohff & Pfeiffer: A dealer for buffets, but they had a full plateau clarinet! Turns out they do custom keywork (they can do any keys, or all of them, or any combination inbetween). And it played VERY nicely! Thinking about buying a cheap clarinet somewhere and sending it to them to get it converted to full plateau just to have one.
and lastly, but not leastly (made up words are fun!)
New Rico Mouthpiece: Really liked it. Bought one, and I'm going between it and the McLune student mouthpiece right now. Very rich sounding in all registers, very easy to articulate, just a HAIR slower articulation than the McLune Plato. But still plenty fast enough to allow me to articulate my max speed on any register. Also, very consistent. Tried three of the closed facings, and they all played extremely similar. I believe these mouthpieces are "milled" and not "molded", which could make for a more consistent facing and measurements.
Alright. That's my quick report on most of the stuff I tried. Glad to have bored some of you, intrigued others, and giving some other GAS inflicted folk ideas of stuff to try out.
Looking forward to trying out more and more as stuff comes out and I can find them, and if you made it, thanks for reading.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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