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Re: David Shifrin, B40 type mouthpiece

Author: RLarm
Date: 2014-10-29 03:29

It's interesting that the initial question was asked and where the contributors have taken it!

I studied with David for one year in the early 80's. By that time he had switched from Pynes to Kanters. ( I don't know what model Jim was making at that time.) A much discussed topic amongst the various students was the quality of sound that Shifrin was producing at that particular time. The consensus was a warm, dark but diffuse tone. His current sound is quite different with a lot more ring and focus and dare I say "brighter." However, even though his sound might have changed he is still a great musician who has matured even more in his interpretations of whatever he is performing. Isn't that the most important thing?

What was truly amazing about David was his ability to produce his sound with whatever he picked up to play. Several times he would demonstrate on my clarinet (at that time a Selmer 10G with a Kaspar 11) and sound EXACTLY like he did on his own set-up. I complained to him that whenever I played my Buffet R13 A clarinet (I bought it from him) I would get this buzzing sound which was driving me crazy. He picked it up, told me to "think the buzz out" and promptly played it with NO buzz. I have no idea how he did that! When I returned to Hawaii for the summer I had my local repairman take a look at the horn. He told me there was a bug hole in one of the pads which was causing the buzz.

Robert Larm
Woodwind Supervisor, Royal Hawaiian Band

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