 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: JerryForsyth
Date: 2012-08-21 11:20
I have an Eddie Daniels mouthpiece on a Zinner blank that I just love. It is called the Santa Fe model. I just bought another mouthpiece (They are like potato chips. You can't have just one.) that came from a very well respected poster here and it says the tip opening is 1.06 mm. I like the new MP but not as much as the Daniels. I play mostly easy jazz stuff like Artie Shaw and Goodman.
I have nothing to measure the opening with, but when I put the Eddie Daniels MP with a reed on it up against the new one with a reed on it the Eddie Daniels MP looks to have a gap about two-thirds as big as the 1.06 MP.
Does "closed" mean a certain MM range? Does "Open"? Or is all of this relative? And relative to what?
So I am curious as to what the true range of MP openings is. Does it go from like .80 up to 1.30 or is the range even greater than that? Also, contrary to what I have always been told, a 2 1/2 reed works just great on this very closed mouthpiece and I do not understand that at all.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2012-08-21 13:25
Tip openings are generally measured in millimeters. A 1.06 (sometimes indicated in ads as 106 without the decimal point) has an opening between the tip of the mouthpiece and the edge of the reed (or the glass on which measuring is usually done) of 1.06 mm.. Occasionally, the measurement is given in inches - a 1 mm (1.00 or 100) tip opening is about equivalent to .039 in..
Most French-style Bb(/A/C) clarinet mouthpieces have tip openings ranging from 0.95mm up to around 1.20mm or 1.25mm. Your Daniels mouthpiece may be more closed than the 1.06 you're comparing it to, but it isn't likely that you'd be able to eyeball the difference, and it certainly wouldn't be as close as 0.70mm. There are other co-equal parameters that affect the resistance you feel from a mouthpiece, particularly the distance from the tip of the mouthpiece to the point where the rails begin to curve away from the flat surface of the reed (curve length). The internal dimensions, particularly baffle depth, also affect resistance.
I'd say that 1.06mm is on the border between closed and medium openings. "Closed" facings are typically in the .096 to 1.03 or 1.04 range. I'd consider the 1.06 a medium opening and anything more open than 1.12 or so to be "open," but players disagree about those ranges, which is why it's better to see the actual opening measurement than a more general description. Unfortunately, tip gauges don't measure identically, so even specific measurements are of somewhat limited use. In the end you still have to try the mouthpiece and make a judgement about it based on how it plays.
Karl
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2012-08-22 16:15
Must emphasise kdk's point in second paragraph. The tip openning is only a part of the package. The length of the lay is another BIG factor (if that smaller tip mouthpiece you refer to has a longer lay on it, that would greatly affect it's ability to work well with softer reeds).
..................Paul Aviles
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Author: Hank Lehrer
Date: 2012-08-22 16:55
Jerry and kdk,
This is perhaps the cleanest question and response I have ever seen on this BB. Nice work on asking a tricky question and getting a clear and concise answer.
I played a Portnoy BP02 for many years which is pretty open at 1.15 or there about. As a doubler, an open MP seems to work best for me.
HRL
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